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John Parulis
Open Letter to Friends of the Eel River on problems with SB 1029
Dear FOER,
I'm writing to you, because I'm
concerned with your tacit support for SB 1029. I'm concerned about
the bill's implications and hidden aspects.
http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1029
The bill calls for "railbanking" along the Eel River corridor, I believe from Willits to Eureka.
According to Federal Law, Railbanking allows the return of rail,
"By
law, rail takes priority over trail, and any freight rail company can
call for the return of a “railbanked” corridor, if it has demand,
funding and technology to justify it. At least 20 rail-trails have
gone full circle and been converted back to railways. Currently, the
NCRA is fully occupied with relaunching rail service south of
Cloverdale, but it has no intention to consider plans north of
Willits for 10 years. ERTA eagerly offers to help plan for a trail
there in the interim."
http://yournec.org/content/railbanking-willits-to-humboldt-bay
What is the legal entity operating the future rail trail? Great Redwood Trail Agency or SMART?
SMART was not chartered to operate rail beyond Cloverdale, yet if I read the bill correctly, they will in fact be the governing body. SMART was "supposed" to be fully funded by its 1/4 cent sales tax.
This has proved ineffective for funding its operations. In fact it has siphoned off funds in the tens of millions from other important road/highway improvement projects.
There doesn't appear to be any guarantees in SB 1029, that rail can not ever be re-established on the Eel River Canyon from Willits to Eureka.
When NCRA oversaw the rail line, they had plans to re-open Island Mountain Quarry on the Eel, as a method of funding the return of rail operations in the Eel River Canyon. FOER founder and friend, Nadananda Patricia Hamilton, wrote about the dangers of re-opening Island Mountain Quarry and the railroad in the report linked here:
https://eelriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2007_The-Railroad-Dilemma.pdf
Is there a connection between the
intent of SB 1029 and re-opening the Island Mountain Quarry at some
point? Why isn't some prohibition towards that end written into the
language of the bill?
There is yet another train proposal for rail service from Redding to Eureka.
I'd be curious to know how this
intersects with possible freight usage on the Eel River corridor.
The bill passed committee. There seem to be a lot of unknowns about it as it heads towards its next stage.
What better way to pave the way for large-scale commercial
operations, that may see the export of vital natural resources from
Northern California, than to usher them in through shaky promises
made to well intentioned environmental organizations.
Sincerely,
John Parulis
John Parulis is a licensed contractor and adviser with the Contractors State License Board, an advisory member of the tax watch-group http://costmarin.org and a past documentarian for Greenpeace USA.