Neighbors and environmental advocates file petition to reconsider building new Tooele rail line

Tooele County residents and an activist group are asking the Surface Transportation Board to reconsider its approval of a planned railroad extension to serve a new industrial park, and hinting at a lawsuit if the board declines.

The Lakeview Business Park project, a Romney Group development plan, would transform 1,000 acres of Grantsville into a manufacturing, distribution and research hub.

One of the master plan highlights from the company is an 11-mile rail line from Savage Tooele Railroad Company, which would connect to Union Pacific trains for the business park tenants, and provide a link to the Utah Inland Port Authority.

The Surface Transportation Board approved those rail expansion plans in early April. A group of Tooele residents, along with Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, then filed a petition for reconsideration to the board, arguing it didn’t account for the “downstream negative environmental and public health consequences of approving Savage’s rail line.”

If the board doesn’t reverse its decision, the advocates wrote in a news release, they intend “to pursue all options in opposing the rail line.” 

Though the company argued the rail is a more environmentally-friendly option to transport goods than roads, neighbors and climate advocates believe the project would accelerate the development of the industrial parks planned in Tooele, attracting tens of thousands of diesel-fueled trucks and substantially changing the agricultural nature of the area to heavier industrial zones.

“This is a rural community. It’s where people come to live and to retire. We don’t want it to be a concrete jungle with warehouses and everything concrete and pavement,” Kyle Mathews, a board member with the Erda Community Association, said. “It’s just not what this place is about.”

For as long as Mathews has been alive, his hometown of Erda has been a rural community, where his neighbors keep acres with horses, cows, pigs and other farming activities. His home is in a 10-acre property that grows alfalfa that he sells to other locals. 

His property is about a half mile away from the rail project.

“It’s just literally down the road a little bit. There’s nothing between me and the railroad. I mean, that’s how rural it is out here,” Mathews said. “It’s a farm community. It’s not a warehouse district.”

It’s not like the community is against growth, he said, they would just like to see smart and quality developments.

The project may have big environmental impacts to wetlands and affect the quality of life of farmers with increased levels of air, noise and light pollution, in addition to effects in water supply, traffic and infrastructure, Mathews said. 

“This isn’t what we consider quality growth,” he said.

The complaint 

“The Savage Tooele Rail Line would dramatically degrade quality of life in adjacent communities. Air quality and the ensuing public health impact would not be ‘de minimis,’” the petition for reconsideration says, pointing out that the Surface Transportation Board’s decision “is based on material errors.”

The proposed Savage Tooele rail line is contrary to the public interest, the petitioners wrote, arguing the environmental assessment of the project “was severely deficient in meeting the legal requirements established by the National Environmental Policy Act, for protecting the public and the environment.” 

The assessment doesn’t completely evaluate harms to biological resources, according to the petition. It also fails to accurately disclose the project’s purpose and effects. Those omissions include the considerations of rail needs from the Inland Port Authority project areas, the industrial parks and other manufacturing sites.   

“In order to approve the project, this Board must find that the project’s transportation merits, and therefore economic merits, outweigh its environmental harms,” according to the document, citing past court decisions of similar cases. “Here, this board erred in not considering all the pollution, public health and climate consequences of the new railway stimulating industrial development on both the upstream and downstream communities. The economic merits do not outweigh the environmental harms.”

The environmental assessment didn’t properly consider the repercussions of an area adjacent to the ailing Great Salt Lake, which has already been compromised with declining water quality and quantity, and air quality standards, the petition reads.

The rail line would be too close to many residents, the petitioners said, which would degrade their quality of life.

“This kind of massive warehouse and industrial development has overwhelmed communities in other states, and the residents have nicknamed these developments ‘diesel death zones,’ because of all the pollution that comes with them,” Dr. Brian Moench, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment president, said in a news release.

Jeff Hymas, director of public affairs at Savage, described the petition as “inaccurate” and “without merit,” and foresees that it will be rejected.  

The Surface Transportation Board’s independent Office of Environmental Analysis “conducted a thorough and robust Environmental Assessment, and the Board’s approval is subject to numerous environmental mitigations which Savage Tooele Railroad will incorporate in its design and operations,” Hymas said in an email.   

The rail line would divert traffic from trucks, increasing energy efficiency, reducing emissions, reducing traffic and improving road longevity “due to less wear and tear from trucks,” he said, citing the office’s analysis. 

No return 

The project has made Mathews think about leaving Erda, as it would surround his property, he said. But, the possibilities of finding a similar spot, with a rural atmosphere while being a 30-minute drive away from Salt Lake City’s downtown are limited.

Plus, he added, while the Lakeview Business Park is in Grantsville and could generate tax income for that city, the roads leading to it are in Erda. 

“So Erda will be maintaining and fixing the roads that these large heavy trucks run on,” Mathews said. “And with no return.”

Erda City Council member Clyde Christensen said in a news release that this is not what the community wants.

“A few people will make a lot of money, completely undermining the quality of life that we enjoy in Erda. But ‘growth for growth’s sake’ is what they’re trying to force upon us for their own benefit.”