The Issues

In a growing number of trackside communities, people with shared concerns have formed groups to champion a variety of issues. Four primary issues have implications for every community and rural area along the existing main line and the proposed rail line to coal mines in Wyoming: 

• Public Safety. A train accident that releases hazardous materials could kill or injure thousands of people. Up to 50 trains a day hauling freight, including hazardous materials, through populated areas at 50 or 60 miles per hour is a recipe for disaster. Train accidents happen, and there are no minor accidents at those speeds. DM&E’s longstanding worst-in-class safety record multiplies the risk to public safety.
• Quality of Life. Picture a train barreling down the tracks every 29 minutes and all it will bring – noise, vibration, traffic delays, diesel fumes and coal dust from open-hopper coal cars.
• Property Rights. For its chosen route to the Powder River Basin coal mines, DM&E aims to use eminent domain to take land from ranch families in South Dakota and Wyoming. The railroad might do the same for areas along the existing main line, including a possible bypass around Mankato, Minn.
• Environmental Protection. The proposed PRB extension would promote additional coal mining – up to 125 million tons a year – and continued use of coal-fired energy production. The consequences include global warming from increased carbon dioxide emissions as well as mercury, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter pollution. In addition, construction would move 100 million cubic yards of earth for the extension and 23 million cubic yards for the mainline project, including a Mankato bypass.

Additional Concerns
Facing the prospect of massive construction projects and a perpetual parade of high-speed trains, citizens in some communities have raised concerns about three other issues: 

• Economic Viability. The immediate effects are bad enough: Falling property values along the rail corridor. Slumping sales for retailers cut off from their customers. Trouble attracting and retaining residents and businesses. Now consider the long-term fallout from a derailment causing a hazardous-materials catastrophe.
• Cultural Preservation. Many residents of the nearby Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations in South Dakota are outraged that DM&E’s planned rail extension intrudes into lands that hold great spiritual, cultural and historic significance to them – Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, the scenic Cheyenne River and the historic Powder River Basin. 
• Historical Preservation. DM&E plans to replace at least 391 bridges eligible for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Minnesota and South Dakota as part of its proposed upgrade. The casualties would include all 165 timber trestles, all 184 stone-box culverts, all 36 steel I-beam bridges, and at least one stone-arch bridge. DM&E promises to evaluate another 101 stone-arch, steel-truss and steel-girder bridges – many 100 to 120 years old – for possible fortification, but the company favors replacement.