DM&E reaches agreements for PRB extension; Mayo Clinic last opposition
The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, which wants to build a new rail line into the Powder River Basin, has reached agreements with 55 of the 56 communities it will pass through.
Brookings, South Dakota, was the most recent city to sign an agreement with DM&E, the railroad said Wednesday. The agreement addresses mitigation issues and affirms the city's support for the project.
"We are very pleased to have worked through the issues in Brookings," DM&E President and CEO Kevin Schieffer said in a statement. "The unprecedented degree of success in the community partnership program underscores both our commitment to address reasonable and legitimate issues of concerns, and demonstrates how important this infrastructure is to our entire service region."
DM&E wants to upgrade its existing line from Winona, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River west to Rapid City, South Dakota, then north to Colony, Wyoming, and south to Crawford, Nebraska. A new extension would be built from Wall, South Dakota, to the PRB for a total cost of about $2 billion. The line will serve all 11 mine loadouts south of Gillette, Wyoming. The Surface Transportation Board approved the railroad's plan in February (PCT 2/17).
DM&E expects to haul 100 million short tons/year from the PRB when the expansion is completed. The railroad has applied for a $2.5 billion Federal Railroad Administration loan (PCT 11/14/05).
Brookings was the last city along the portion of the route in South Dakota. Only Rochester, Minnesota, has not reached an agreement with DM&E. Rochester's opposition is being led by the Mayo Clinic.
Coalition seeks help from congressmen
A Rochester coalition, including the city, clinic, Olmstead County and the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday sent a letter to Minnesota Representative Gil Gutknecht and the state's other congressmen asking them to stop the DM&E coal trains from passing through the heart of the city.In its letter, the coalition said the line if "left unchecked, poses a significant threat to the safety of and long-term economic performance of Rochester. … The DM&E Railroad's refusal to limit significant increases in trains with unrestricted cargo traveling through downtown Rochester, along with their refusal that should increases occur, to set limitation on the number of trains or type of cargo, poses many potential negative consequences to our community. A derailment, especially one involving hazardous materials, in close proximity to our hospitals, would create significant safety risks for Mayo Clinic patients."
About 37 additional coal trains/day would travel on the tracks that pass about 200 feet from the clinic if the project proceeds, Mayo spokesman Chris Gade told Platts Wednesday.
"We don't oppose the project, we oppose the through-train traffic traveling through our community," he said. "We need to continue to have local rail service and the line needs upgraded, but we object to the through traffic traveling through our community at high speeds and at a high frequency without making local stops."
Hospital evacuation impossible
Mayo has more hospital beds than hospitals along the rest of the line combined, Gade said. Hazardous chemicals currently travel on the existing DM&E line. "If there were a hazardous chemical spill, it would be impossible to evacuate the intensive care unit and the hospital. Even if it happens one time, it is one too many times."
The size of Mayo's facilities and complexity of patients being cared for would make it impossible to evacuate patients and staff in either of Mayo's hospitals in the city, the letter said. "A derailment would threaten Mayo Clinic Rochester's role as a destination medical center, resulting in negative long-term economic effects for Mayo Clinic and Minnesota. We are united in strong opposition to the current proposal."
The possibility of an accident could stop US and international patients from coming to the clinic, Gade said.
Gary Newmann, Rochester's assistant city administrator, told Platts Wednesday that the city's biggest objection is disruption caused to the medical center.
"It is a unique medical center with thousands of patients and medical facilities that couldn't be evacuated if there was a hazardous material derailment," Newmann said.
The city has 12 at-grade crossings and a 1.5-mile train would block all the crossings, causing a problem with getting patients and medical teams to the hospital, he said. "This is a community driven by patient care and its economy by the medical center. During the day, the hospital has 29,000 employees. With a population of 90,000, it is the economy."
The city also has issues with the noise and safety in the neighborhoods the tracks pass through, he said.
The Rochester group wants the railroad to consider alternatives to going through the city, including using the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad line to route traffic south of Owatonna, Minnesota. IC&E is owned by Cedar American Rail Holdings, which also owns DM&E.
"None of [the agreements] are necessary," Schieffer told Platts Wednesday. "The STB has ordered mitigation for every community along the line that doesn't have an agreement. We're happy to continue to negotiate … but we're not giving special treatment or rerouting traffic just because one group is huffing and puffing."
He expects the Rochester group will appeal the STB ruling and file lawsuits. "The project has a lot of support in Minnesota. We feel very comfortable that the merits are on our side. This project is going to happen because it makes too much sense not to happen."
— Mark E. Heckathorn