(The following story by Jeffrey Pieters appeared on the Post-Bulletin website on January 31.)
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Additional legal challenges to the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad expansion project will go unheeded.
In an order issued Friday, the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis said it had denied petitions seeking rehearing of the case to overturn federal approval of the DM&E project.
The court order means the court’s previous ruling, issued Oct. 2, 2003, stands.
That order remanded parts of the decision to the Surface Transportation Board for further review.
Specifically, the STB must provide a more detailed explanation of the effects of horn noise and vibration at properties along the rail route, and lay out more clearly the required mitigation for those effects.
The order also requires the STB to reexamine the effects on air quality of increased coal-burning.
The DM&E’s proposal calls for rebuilding 600 miles of track and extending the line 260 miles into Wyoming coal country. DM&E would use the line to haul coal and other commodities to Midwestern markets.
The Oct. 2 court order upheld some of the most critical parts of the STB’s 2002 decision.
The decision authorized the $2 billion project and rejected Rochester’s request for a 34-mile bypass around the city.
Rochester City Attorney Terry Adkins called Friday’s court order “no surprise.”
“It’s by far the exception, rather than the rule, when they (judges) grant rehearings,” Adkins said.
The only further recourse parties have is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Adkins said he’s not aware whether any of the parties plan to do that.
“We have no plans to appeal this further,” he said.