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KZYX reporters and independent journalists cover local news for Mendocino County, California, Monday through Friday in six and a half minute reports. The KZYX News podcast is available for redistribution under CC BY 4.0, or the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
On October 11th, we ran an interview with Robert Pinoli, the president of Mendocino Railway about their plans for reopening Tunnel One and the federal loan that Mendocino Railway received in January of this year. Peter McNamee, a resident and property owner adjacent to the railroad in Fort Bragg does not support the loan or the repairs that the Mendocino Railway has planned. He has spent years studying the railway and has testified at the Coastal Commission meetings. He also provided us with a copy of a letter from the Coastal Commission to the Federal Railroad Agency that outlines the environmental hazards posed by the railway's plans. Thank you for being with us today. Peter.
PETER McNAMEE Happy to be here.
MICHELLE BLACKWELL Let's start with the premise of a federal loan to shore up the railway. Amtrak is running with federal help and receives over $2 billion in grants annually. Why is the Skunk Train's low interest loan different?
PETER McNAMEE When you talk about Amtrak, you're talking about a large railway system that moves large numbers of people on regular time schedules uh between many points around our country that is a proven system of transportation. What's different about the Mendocino railway is is it's a short line and so its capacity to uh provide a public benefit of moving large number of people at an efficient cost is very limited. I object from the standpoint that for many years now, that rail line has not been used for transportation of people or freight between Fort Bragg and the city of Willits. In fact, the real question is whether or not Mendocino railway is a railroad because as it's been operating an excursion train. In the case of Glenn Blair, what they've done is built a bar out there which then they sell drinks to people and they take people out there and they, and then they come back. But it's, it's not means of transportation. So it's not moving people, it's not moving freight and to use my tax dollars to subsidize an amusement ride is offensive and a low interest loan is a subsidy.
MICHELLE BLACKWELL You gave us a copy of the letter from the coastal Commission which was sent to the Federal Railway Authority. The Mendocino Railway's plans would degrade water quality in Pudding Creek and the Noyo River. The Noyo River is of course the source of drinking water for the city of Fort Bragg. There are other concerns for wildlife. Can you summarize the issues for us?
PETER MCNAMEE Sure. It's important for us to remember that the Noyo River basin is a, a biological treasure from the standpoint of being a nursery for salmonoid populations. And yet the rail line is proposing to install thousands of new rail ties that are according to the coastal commission soaked in arsenic and com and copper compounds that are toxic to salmon populations. And that have a long history of being shown to reduce salmonoid populations in and they leach into those drainage basins. 7.5 tons of arsenic is what the coastal Commission said would be introduced into that drainage basin as a result of what the Mendocino railway proposes to do.
MICHELLE BLACKWELL My understanding from the letter from the coastal commission is that the railway line, the parts that they're talking about repairing on the other side of tunnel, one goes right along the river,
PETER MCNAMEE correct uh for, for the bulk of it, uh the eastern side of it, there's a point where it leaves the river and climbs up through a pass and drops down into, into willets, but that is essentially the entire basin that it it covers. And there been a number of studies on what the geological condition of that basin is. The, these were studies that were done in conjunction with studying the salmonoid populations in uh the Noyo river basin because of the geology of that basin which has steep canyon walls. It's susceptible to slides. Large numbers of slides have occurred over the history of that period that have wiped out that railroad and in many cases ended up in the room. And so there's a real threat that the rail line itself, which again is full of these toxic soaked ties, railroad ties uh will end up in the river and uh directly leach into that, that drainage basin. None of the rail lines in this Redwood region that goes from the Bay area all the way up to, to Arcada are operating. They've all been closed over the years as a result of landslides and tunnel closures. And so, so many of those occurred that in, I believe it was 1998 or 1999 that the Federal Rail Authority shut that line down and said it was unsafe for trains. And so no train has gone from Willits to the Bay Area in over 25 years.
MICHELLE BLACKWELL So they shut down the line that goes along 101. Basically the other concerns that I read about in the um Costa commission letter was about the um impacts on wildlife.
PETER MCNAMEE Uh I think uh there are a number of concerns. One is that uh in the proposal that uh the coastal commission referred to, they cited the installation of fences along the property of uh of the railroad and the concern was that they will interfere with the natural flow of wildlife living in the Noyo Basin.
MICHELLE BLACKWELL Peter McNamee also pointed out that the Mendocino Railway or the Federal Railroad Authority have not provided environmental documentation or complied with the Coastal Zone Management Act that was passed by Congress in 1972. .