Railroads must stop polluting, cover cars

A few weeks ago I attended a chamber of commerce luncheon where the guest speaker from Union Pacific Railroad spoke about Union Pacific and everything they do for our area and the country. A bunch of bunk I say.

Someone asked about all of the coal being shipped through our area and the dust from that coal polluting our lands and waters. All he said there was not that much coal being hauled through Sandpoint. More bunk. He told us that Long Beach, Calif., has the most coal trains and not Sandpoint. So what!

The railroad has so much profits, according to him, why not cover those coal cars and stop polluting. I read in the Spokesman-Review that the Spokane Riverkeepers Alliance joined the Sierra Club and Puget Soundkeeper Alliance and other non profit groups and have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Spokane to have all of the railroads cover their coal cars. How about our politicos joining in and also file a lawsuit?

I ask him about why the engineers have to blow their horns in the middle of the night and early mornings when there are crossing arms, bells and flashing red lights. He could not answer me and referred me to Bill Ince at Union Pacific Railroad in Salt Lake City.

I contacted him and was told to email www.fra.org. with my request, which I did. I found out that a crossing that is in a sparsely populated area that has crossing arms and bells with flashing red lights, like the crossing on Bottle Bay Road in Sagle, can become a silent crossing but it has to be requested by the Bonner County Board of Supervisors.

Good luck with that. I guess we will just be stuck hearing those lousy train horns blasting in the middle of the night and early in the mornings.

LEN GOLDING

Sagle