PD Close-to-Home on AG's efforts to enforce a consent decree.

Too bad the writer didn't actually read the FUA letters. If he had
he would realize that the state attorney was merely trying to enforce an agreement
made by the NCRA years ago.

Here's the op-ed


CLOSE TO HOME: Is freight service in Sonoma County's future?

By ED DAVIS


Published: Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 4:36 p.m.
Gordon Lightfoot famously sang, “There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run,” and if California Deputy Attorney General Rose Fua has her way, freight trains may never run again on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Line.

As reported in The Press Democrat, the attorney general’s office, under Rose Fua’s direction, is threatening court action if the North Coast Railroad Authority does not deal with “underground contamination” along the rail line.

First of all, any contamination that may exist along that line came from Southern Pacific decades ago. The North Coast Railroad Authority has already spent $1.1 million for the surface cleanup of eight abandoned rail yards north of Willits, and almost $3 million is slated for that continuing effort.

Before the rail authority can spend that cleanup money, however, it needs the approval of three state agencies: the state Department of Fish and Game, the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, under the direction of, you guessed it, the attorney general’s office.

Environmental consultants agree that the best way to collect and clean up old railroad ties and debris along the line is with freight trains themselves. Trains are the most practical and environmentally efficient way to reach many of these areas, the very trains that the attorney general’s office is threatening to prohibit. If allowed to proceed, while this clean up is happening, the NCRA can work with all of the state agencies involved on the longer-term job of “characterizing” and remediating any underground contamination that might exist at the eight abandoned rail yards.

Getting freight trains running on this line again, sooner rather than later, represents the rarest of opportunities: to support two important regional transportation projects with the same dollar. SMART will be sharing the tracks with freight trains from Highway 37 to Cloverdale. Before a single SMART train can carry a single rider, the trackway needs to be upgraded to an 80 MPH passenger service standard. The work the North Coast Railroad Authority is attempting to do on this section of the line right now — this is a shovel-ready project — will bring the tracks up to Class 3 freight standards of 40 MPH, getting SMART halfway there without costing SMART a dime.

Rather than threatening legal action, the Attorney General’s office might try facilitating cooperation between the various agencies. No one is in a better position to do so. Who knows? We might actually get the trains rolling and the cleanup done without unnecessary cost to the taxpayers.

Why would it cost the taxpayers anything? Because we, the taxpayers, own the Northwestern Pacific Railroad line, and that’s a very good thing. One of our 60-car freight trains will take 240 big rigs off of Highway 101. One gallon of diesel fuel can move a ton of freight 400 miles over our rail line. Freight trains were green transportation back when green was just a color.

Based on her dealings with NRCA to date, Fua appears to be more interested in settling old scores than in efficiently solving problems and moving forward. She clearly doesn’t seem to appreciate that in punishing another state agency, the NRCA, over pollution it did not create but does want to clean up, she is punishing the taxpayers who own the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Line, you and me. Perhaps it is time to bring some new players to the table, so that once again, the railroad can run in this fair land.

Ed Davis, a long-time resident of Sonoma Valley, is president of Empire West Plastics. He lives in Glen Ellen.