Posted by Tara Flanagan | Jan 29, 2021
Eagle County got the attention of the Surface Transportation Board this week, prompting the agency to make a 15-day extension on the comment period for a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) on the proposed Uinta Basin Railway in northeastern Utah. Comments are now due Feb. 12.
The Unita Basin Railway is a proposed link to the oil shale reserves of northeastern Utah.
Chaffee County has joined efforts to comment with with Eagle County and the Town of Avon, bringing attention to the Tennessee Pass Line and how it could in the future fit into plans to deliver oil shale out of the Uinta Basin and onward to the larger rail network.
The short line railway recently secured a lease agreement for the line from the owner Union Pacific.
Concerns range from fear of crude oil shipments from Utah to the effect the reintroduction of the train might have on ecosystems and property values.
Sara Cassidy, community liason for the Colorado Midland & Pacific, stated at a recent meeting of concerned stakeholders in Leadville the railway has no intention to operate oil trains across the Tennessee Pass Line.
That speculation is connected to a proposed rail line in Utahâs Uinta Basin which will be operated by Rio Grande Pacific Corp., parent company to Colorado Midland & Pacific.
Opposition to the plan to revive long-dormant rail traffic on Tennessee Pass is growing by the day.
Residents of Chaffee, Lake and Eagle counties buried the Surface Transportation Board this month with opposition to the plan proposed by a Texas-based, short-line operator to begin running freight and possibly passengers on tracks that last saw trains in 1997. Environmental groups, county commissioners and a competitor on Colorado’s Eastern Plains have joined the chorus of opposition, asking the federal transportation board to either reject or further scrutinize the deal.
Chaffee and Eagle county commissioners are weighing in on Rio Grande Pacific Corp.’s push to run crude oil trains on a proposed new railroad in Utah that might lead to tankers of Uinta Basin crude rolling through Avon, Minturn, Buena Vista, Browns Canyon and Salida.