(The following story by Jennifer Smith appeared on the Newsday website on October 9.)
NEW YORK — The federal body that regulates railroads is taking a closer look at potential abuses of the same type of exemption that U.S. Rail Corp. of Ohio said allowed it to demolish trees and excavate sand in Yaphank without seeking permits.
U.S. Rail has until Tuesday to file a detailed explanation of its plans for a truck-rail facility on 28 acres on Sills Road with the federal Surface Transportation Board.
The legal point under scrutiny by the board: whether railroads or businesses seeking recognition as such are improperly using a provision of federal transportation law to operate facilities including waste transfer stations without oversight.
Last week, the board announced that it would consider asking those seeking federal authority to operate rail lines whether they intend to move garbage or construction and demolition debris. The proposed revision to current rules could also require them to give more detailed information on past and future operations of such rail facilities.
The move came at the behest of a group of large North American freight carriers, which asked the board to review the issue earlier this year.
In June, a petition from six freight carriers, including CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway, argued that the board and the public needed more information to determine whether companies were truly entitled to the exemptions they claim. “These class exemptions are being abused by parties whose primary objective is something other than providing rail service,” it said.
Transportation by rail carriers is exempt from state and local regulation under a 1995 law intended to smooth the flow of interstate commerce across the nation’s rail network. U.S. Rail has said that as a recognized rail carrier it is exempt from local regulations that would normally govern the clearing done recently on 18 acres of the Yaphank site. U.S. Rail’s attorney did not return a phone message seeking comment.
Backers of the project have said that garbage plays no part in their plan. Rather, U.S. Rail and the company that owns the land say they intend to ship stone and other construction materials by rail to Yaphank.
But last week, details emerged showing that U.S. Rail and some individuals behind the landowner, Sills Road Realty of Syosset, had past interests in shipping solid waste by rail. The site of the proposed truck-rail facility is less than three miles from the Brookhaven landfill.
U.S. Rail has not filed a notice of exemption for the Yaphank project, saying it needs no specific authorization because it is already recognized as a rail carrier in Ohio.
But it did seek the board’s authorization for a similar truck-rail facility in Paterson, N.J., that New Jersey environmental regulators say is a likely front for a garbage depot. There, the state is “concerned that U.S. Rail is simply using the Notice of Exemption proceeding to handle waste at an unregulated solid waste facility in order to avoid state environmental, health and safety regulation . . . ” according to a filing with the board.
New Jersey also supported the major rail carriers’ petition to require more information for notices of exemption.
The garbage issue will come before a House transportation subcommittee on Thursday, when it holds a hearing on railroad-owned solid-waste truck-rail facilities.