Below is the letter that S.A.F.E. – Save Angeles Forest for Everyone, wrote to Secretary of Transportation, Peter Buttigieg concerning the Palmdale to Burbank DEIR.
Click for the extensive: The S.A.F.E. DEIR comment report
Click for the: Meehan-Hamilton Comment Letter/Report on Seismic Issues
PO Box 345, Sunland, CA 91041-0345 board.safe.coalition@gmail.com
December 13, 2022
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
U.S. Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590
Re: California High-Speed Rail Project
Palmdale to Burbank Draft Environmental Report Comment Letter
Dear Secretary Buttigieg:
Thank you for your ongoing commitment to solving our country’s transportation challenges, particularly those that address climate change. There is no doubt that the U.S. and the rest of the world must reduce carbon emissions to save our planet. We can agree that green projects must be implemented as soon as possible in order to slow, stop, or reverse the impacts of greenhouse gas.
You may or may not remember our letter to you dated March 10, 2021 in response to your appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out” on February 4, 2021, wherein you mentioned high-speed rail (HSR) as part of the overall transportation menu as one of the steps to reduce greenhouse gasses and to improve mobility. That letter we believe provided a clear argument against why California’s high-speed project was not a worthy candidate to receive federal funding. For your convenience, you may find that letter on our website, www.dontrailroad.us. Because the link is a very long random set of numerals and letters, please click on the tab “Letters” and locate the date of 3-10-21.
Just today, we (Cindy Bloom) received the attached email from the “Democratic Leadership Project of AMERIPAC” touting high-speed rail as one of the solutions to fight climate change. This email features your likeness and quotes you as saying, “I want the United States to be leading the world with access to high speed rail.” We find it perplexing that you would still promote high-speed rail (at least in California) had you read our March 21, 2021 letter which provided incontrovertible evidence supporting our assertion that the California’s high-speed rail project is profoundly unfit to be considered a “green” project.
About Us. “Save Angeles Forest for Everyone” (“S.A.F.E.”) is a grass-roots, non-partisan group of community volunteers who organized in Fall 2014 to stop the California High-Speed Rail Authority from building train routes that cause irreparable environmental damage to the Angeles National Forest, the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, and our local communities of Kagel Canyon, Sunland-Tujunga, Shadow Hills, Lakeview Terrace, La Tuna Canyon, and Sun Valley. Over the last six years, we have become “accidental” high-speed train experts, particularly with respect to the Palmdale-to-Burbank project section. The majority of our coalition is comprised of Democrats.
Our group just recently submitted our comment letter to the California High-Speed Rail Authority’s (CHSRA) Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Palmdale to Burbank Project Section (copy enclosed). The Palmdale to Burbank Project Section which we are addressing in this letter represents only 7% of the entire Phase 1 project (38 of 520 miles). Coincidentally, you are a cc on this letter and we were just readying to send it to you when we received the above-referenced email.
As you know, CHSRA must review submitted comments and respond to raised issues. I urge you to read the enclosed comment letter to learn of deeply troubling concerns we have based on information gleaned from the DEIR, including but not limited to seismicity, hydrology, fire hazards, impact on public utilities, safety, and so on. Regarding the “greenness” of this project, the DEIR revealed that nearly 5 million dump truck trips will be required to remove the spoils from various portals, including deep bored tunnels. The amount of greenhouse gas released for just this one construction element of the Palm dale to Burbank Project Section equates to over 43 tons of CO2 emissions i.e., excludes the impacts from other heavy construction equipment such as bulldozers, steam rollers, excavators, concrete fabrication, worker transportation, etc. Another area of great concern is that conservatively, the project will require nearly 1 billion gallons of water during and post-construction. Hundreds of millions of gallons will be wasted as planned mitigation to water trees in the Angeles National Forest in anticipation that bored tunnels will cause dewatering. I am sure you are well aware of the fact that Western United States (especially California) is in the worst drought in recent history requiring a drought emergency proclamation, with no end in sight. However, possibly the most egregious revelation was that the project has been for the last several years and currently is the largest recipient of California’s cap-and-trade revenue (25%) BUT WILL HAVE TO PURCHASE POLLUTION OFFSET CREDITS DURING DECADES OF CONSTRUCTION. Tell us, how can this be both a “green” project and a “gross polluter?”
After you read our comment letter, we are optimistic that you will reach the same conclusions we did: The only route that can be considered for the Palmdale to Burbank Project Section is the No Project Alternative (ideally, the whole project should be terminated). All other six proposed build alternatives are fraught with risks and impacts which are real and easily verifiable: Nearly 30 miles of deep-bore tunneling through an active seismic and high fire hazard zone, permanently losing precious water, destroying habitat, building acres of infrastructure within a national forest and a national monument, emitting years of greenhouse gasses during construction, pushing most of the logistical and technical burdens of serious design considerations onto contractors with no specified amount of oversight, utilizing the failed 15/85 design build model, and so on. Yet, the “benefits” of this project are based solely on CHSRA’s pure and untested speculation that ridership will be so vigorous (notwithstanding that there is no real reason for train ridership) that it will recoup the $105 billion capital cost and the tons of greenhouse gas emissions generated during construction in a matter of months.
We strongly urge you and the Biden Administration to robustly pursue other green projects that have been identified and which can be implemented much sooner: Upping electric vehicle production and making them more affordable, investing in nationwide charging stations, renewable energy, and electrifying current trains (Amtrak) in congested areas (Northeast USA). These can be implemented much quicker, are jobs creators, and are much more efficient projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions than investing in high-speed rail, especially California’s high-speed rail project.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
On Behalf of the S.A.F.E. Coalition,
Cindy Bloom, Kelly Decker, William E. Eick, Esq.
