The Cookbooks Are Back!

To order by mail, send your completed order form to:

PPC
PO Box 38
Clarence, PA 16829
 

Shopping the Dump Away through iGive.com • An Anytime Fundraiser
One of our supporters recommended this online resource for fundraising, so here it is!
Do you shop online? Click here for more details...

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Help us spread the word now that we have reached this critical juncture that requires funding. Download our donation letter and ask friends, family and neighbors to donate to save this forest and “Stop the Landfill.”

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• Hall's Market
• Snow Shoe Sandwich Shop
• Tussey Mountain Outfitters, Bellefonte
• Moshannon Group, Sierra Club

More about our patrons...
 

Visit our STB/Railroad Reading Room for maps and background history regarding the Trash Train.

Download our Proposed Rail Reactivation Map, PPC STB Scoping Comments, PPC Petition, and 100 Reasons flyer to share with family, friends and neighbors.

Railroad Update: Environmental Mitigations?

It may seem like it has been quiet on the landfill/railroad front lately, but don’t be fooled. Resource Recovery and the RJ Corman Railroad continue to work behind the scenes to move their landfill/railroad project forward.

Please read the letter that was recently posted on the Surface Transportation Board website listing numerous voluntary mitigation measures proposed by the RJ Corman Railroad in an attempt to diminish the negative impacts of trash trains travelling through our rural neighborhoods on their way to the proposed Rush Township landfill.

Here are a few of the items listed in this letter:

VM 3 — Petitioner will coordinate the Final Design of the grade-separated crossing at Casanova Road (T-958), including any necessary temporary maintenance and protection of traffic measures, with the Morris Township Supervisors and/or Morris Township Roadmaster/Road Department, as appropriate.

Morris Township residents — How do you feel about trash trains traveling through your communities?

VM 7 — Petitioner will limit the speed of trains over the reconstructed Beech Creek Branch Line to 25 mph with restrictions for the head end of the train to be limited to 10 mph when approaching and crossing Route 53 and Ninth Street near Philipsburg.

What is this going to do to traffic patterns and safety in an already dangerous and congested area?

VM 8 — Subject to operational limitations, Petitioner will attempt to limit the operation of trains over the reconstructed Beech Creek Branch Line to the hours of 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM in order to minimize nighttime noise impacts to adjacent residential properties.

Do you really believe this? How would they police this?

VM 12 — Upon residential area property owners request and if it can be done without impairing safety on the right-of-way, Petitioner will share costs 50%-50% with property owner to erect right-of-way fence (length and height of fencing subject to Petitioner discretion). In such case, property owner would assume responsibility and liability for fence maintenance.

If these residents didn’t ask for a railroad in their backyard, why should they be responsible for 50% of the cost and the entire maintenance of fencing?

VM 14 — Regarding the acquisition of private property, Petitioner will only acquire that which is necessary to re-establish the 66-foot railroad right-of-way, and will attempt to reach an amicable sales agreement with each respective property owner in lieu of a condemnation proceeding.

How do these property owners feel about losing their property so an outside developer can bring in New York and New Jersey trash?

VM 19 — Petitioner shall coordinate with Cooper Township if they wish to petition the state to install gates or other supplementary safety measures, in order to provide the level of warning necessary to allow the township to request a waiver from FRA of the requirement to sound the horn at both the Sawmill Road (T -707) and Winburne Road (S.R. 2037) grade crossings.

Cooper Township residents — How do your Supervisors feel about this?  Do they even know?

VM 34 — Petitioner will attempt to establish a mutually acceptable mitigation agreement with the Headwaters Charitable Trust regarding the reactivation of the Eastern Segment, and the subsequent loss of 9.3 miles of the Snow Shoe Multi-Use Rail Trail. However, should Petitioner determine that a mutually acceptable mitigation agreement is unachievable with the Headwaters Charitable Trust, Petitioner reserves the right to construct a new trailhead facility, consisting of a gravel parking area and covered sign structure, at the new Gorton Road trail terminus, as the sole mitigation for the project’s impact to the Snow Shoe Multi-Use Rail Trail.

Does it REALLY sound like they want to work with the Headwaters Charitable Trust? Where is the new Gorton Road?

VM 38 — Petitioner will reconstruct the rail line in such a manner as to leave in place the historic stone portals to the Peale Tunnel.

What happens to the rest of this historic structure? What about the Viaduct Bridge?

Don’t like what you’re reading?
Don’t like the way these people are dictating our lives?

Contact your elected officials at the local, state and federal level and tell them how you feel (phone calls are the best method; phone and email listed below). Ask for their help. They should be aware of this rail line proposal — we’ve been sending them information about it for the past year.

It is difficult for one citizen’s voice to be heard in Washington, DC, but our local, state, and federal legislators should be able to communicate our concerns to the powers that be. They need to contact the Council on Environmental Quality and request that the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for Environmental Filing STB Finance Docket No. 35116 be done fully, completely, and well, and that a connected action rather than a single action approach be emphasized so to ensure the best and truest environmental assessment.

This draft EIS is due to be released soon. There will be a public meeting and an opportunity for comment. We will keep you posted of details as they become available. It is imperative that we make our voices heard every chance we get.

Please share this news with your family, friends, and neighbors. We need to get the word out.

More You Can Do to Help...

Donate to Our Legal Defense Fund

Our attorney(s), although expensive, have been invaluable in helping us deal with this complex railroad issue. We would not have been effective without them. Donations can be mailed to:

People Protecting Communities
PO Box 38
Clarence, PA 16829
or click on the image below to donate via Paypal

For complete information on the proposed Railroad Reactivation, please visit our STB Reading Room

Ever wonder what waste by rail would be like? Check out the following short video and then imagine 55 carloads of trash per day heading our way, 6 days a week for who knows how long. (The train in the video is hauling about 63 cars.)

Please share this video with everyone you know, particularly those living along this line. Federal law requires trains approaching street level crossings to sound their horns for 15 to 20 seconds between 96 to 110 decibels (about as loud as a jackhammer next to your ear) according to the Federal Railroad Administration rules.

Thanks to the Alliance Landfill Blogspot and the folks at the Alliance Landfill Task Force for finding this video.

Help Stop the Landfill

Stay tuned.

Stay involved.

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©2005-2010 People Protecting Communities • last updated January 17, 2010
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