(The following story by Susan Demar Lafferty appeared on the Southtown Star website on September 16.)
CHICAGO — “Unacceptable” and “inadequate” was how Frankfort’s experts summed up the draft environmental impact study on the Canadian National Railway’s proposed acquisition of the EJ&E Railroad.
In a presentation to Frankfort officials this week, environmental experts from Louis Berger Group said the federal government’s roughly 4,000-page document does not determine the specific impact on Frankfort and issues that are cited do not factor into growth beyond 2015.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board is taking public comment on the draft study and will then finalize it, possibly by year’s end. The board will not decide whether to approve the planned $300 million sale of the EJ&E until the final study is completed.
CN wants to buy the EJ&E so it can route much of its freight traffic onto the line, which encircles the Chicago area from Gary to Joliet to Waukegan. That will mean fewer trains going into Chicago and inner-ring suburbs and much more going through towns farther from the city.
Much of the data in the draft study is “arbitrary” and fails to take a “hard look” at how the increase in freight traffic on the EJ&E tracks will affect current residents, future land use and quality of life in towns seeing more train traffic, said Don Kostelec, senior transportation planner for Louis Berger.
In the Southland, the EJ&E line runs through Chicago Heights, park Forest, Matteson, Frankfort and New Lenox.
Trustee Todd Morgan said the Louis Berger report “illustrates the lack of depth in the draft environmental impact study. We are very much opposed to the increase in rail traffic in our community.”
Village officials will now work with environmental and legal consultants to create the village’s final statement on the merger to present to the Surface Transportation Board by the Sept. 30 deadline.
Even if the STB denies the rail merger, CN could still lease the EJ&E tracks, the consultants said.
They cited some of the problems with the draft study:
• It says the chance of a hazardous materials spill is “remote,” despite a rising number of hazmat incidents on freight lines.
• The study does not comply with federal standards for coordinating hazmat emergency response plans with local communities.
• It fails to address how the increase in freight traffic will indirectly affect property values, land use and market influences.
• CN’s estimate that the EJ&E purchase will mean an increase in the number of daily freight trains in the Frankfort area from six to 28 is “quite conservative,” considering that CN could make other improvements after the purchase that would not be subjected to an environmental impact study.