ROCK AND
A HARD PLACE
HUFFINGTON
02.09.14
COUNTING COAL
35
OR MORE
ADDITIONAL
TRAINS COULD
COME AND GO
EACH DAY
100MILLION
9BILLION
Jaffe’s crowdfunded research
has yet to be peer-reviewed, a
point emphasized by Courtney
Wallace, a spokeswoman with
Burlington Northern Santa Fe
Railway, whose lines would host
much of the westbound coal.
Wallace added that BNSF has
spent more than $1 billion on
rail cars and locomotives that
“achieve the highest EPA standards available,” and result in 69
percent fewer diesel emissions
compared to older locomotives.
BNSF has testified that up to
645 pounds of coal dust can escape from each rail car during a
400-mile journey, but Wallace
also pointed to findings by the
railway that this fugitive dust diminishes as railcars travel farther
from the Powder River Basin and
toward export terminals.
Several environmental organiza-
TONS OF COAL
COULD BE
RAILED THROUGH
THE REGION
EACH YEAR
TONS OF COAL LIE BENEATH THE
CROW NATIONS LAND IN MONTANA
tions, including the Sierra Club,
filed a lawsuit in July against BNSF
over coal contamination of U.S.
waterways. Wallace called the action a “publicity stunt,” but a U.S.
District judge denied a motion to
dismiss the case last month.
Blown coal dust and other hazards could be particularly dire
around Celilo and the rest of the
Columbia River Gorge, where
train tracks are sometimes just
feet from tribal residences, said
Hudson, of the Columbia River
Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.
“The winds are reliable and strong
— 40, 50, 70 miles per hour,” he
said. “There’s a reason it’s the
wind-surfing capital of the world.”
Located in rural Montana, the
Crow Nation can’t boast a lucrative seafood or wind-surfing tourism market. What they do have is
a whole lot of coal