Danger By Rail & By River

The National Capital Planning Commission has a gift for Charles County.

La Plata – In an effort to reduce the potential for hazardous material spills and terrorist attacks via railroad in Washington, D.C., the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) wants to reroute the freight trains which currently pass through D.C. on their way elsewhere. As many as thirty freight trains a day could be directed through Waldorf and La Plata in their effort to avoid D.C.

The Charles County Commissioners received word of the proposal at a March 28th presentation by NCPC staff. Their follow up letter to NCPC Director William Dowd informs the NCPC of the commissioners’ objections.

One NCPC option would put nearly thirty freight trains daily on tracks which cut across several high volume roads, like Route 6 in La Plata. The current freight traffic volume on that line is two trains per day which carry Pennsylvania coal for the Mirant power plant in Morgantown.

In addition to the horrible traffic back-ups one train per hour would create in already heavy traffic, the commissioners call Director Dowd’s attention to the negative environmental and financial impact such freight volume would have on the county.

Equipping the county with the extra track necessary to handle such a volume of trains would bring more of the same problems we’re already facing at the hands of the State Highway Association’s US 301 bypass project: bother homes and businesses or destroy important environmental components.

The commissioners see the project simply pawning off D. C. hazmat and terrorist risk to Charles County citizens. Unfortunately, Charles County already has its own locally developed security risk growing in probability at the other end of the county.

Mirant’s proposed addition to its power plant near Cobb Island would not only wantonly use up the county’s only future fresh water aquifer, but it also has the potential to increase our exposure to terrorist attack and decrease area Naval work.

County resident and Water Advisory Board member Cheryl Thomas told The Bay Net that she’s been actively calling state and local attention to the hundreds of coal barges which Mirant wants to bring via the Potomac River waterway each month. Ms. Thomas wants officials to realize that many of these barges would originate from Venezuela which is openly hostile to the U.S. Her letter to the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) gave this explaination: