(The Billings Gazette posted the following article on its website on November 12.)
WEST GLACIER, Mont. — The public will have an extra week to comment on an environmental impact statement assessing a request by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to use artillery shells to trigger avalanches in Glacier National Park to keep snowslides from blocking the tracks.
The National Park Service announced the comment period for the proposal would close on Dec. 22, 60 days after a notice was published in the Federal Register.
However, the notice wasn’t published until Oct. 30, pushing the closing date for comments back to Dec. 30.
BNSF wants to be able to bomb the backcountry above a remote stretch of track.
The park service would prefer the railroad build snow sheds, saying blasting would have too much impact on visitors, wildlife and wilderness.
The company says there’s no time to build sheds and that they would prove too costly.
Critics of the plan say the railroad could easily afford new snow sheds, pointing to record railroad profits in recent years.
The public can comment on four proposed alternatives.
Alternative A calls for no action. Preferred alternative B calls for construction of snow sheds over train tracks.
Alternative C would permit limited use of explosives in the park’s wilderness backcountry for 10 years, while the railroad builds sheds. And alternative D, supported by the railroad, would permit explosives’ use indefinitely in the park.