— By John Stark of the BellinghamHerald.com —
While it may not be the “major victory” that environmental groups are trumpeting in their press release, the Thursday, Jan. 2 ruling by a Yakima federal judge certainly avoids a major defeat in their lawsuit targeting coal dust emissions from BNSF rail cars rolling through Washington state.
Lonny Suko, Senior U.S. District Judge, denied a motion to dismiss the July 24, 2013 lawsuit filed against BNSF by a coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and Bellingham-based ReSources for Sustainable Communities. The lawsuit charged that BNSF coal trains were discharging coal dust into Washington waterways. Those discharges are a violation of the Clean Water Act because the railroad has no permit for them as the act requires, the lawsuit says.
Attorneys for the railroad had argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed. While they did not deny that coal dust finds its way from passing trains into waterways, they compared the resulting pollution to rain washing oil and tire rubber deposits from parking lots into streams. They further argued that higher court rulings have found that this kind of pollution is legally defined as “non-point source pollution” because it does not come from “a discernible confined and discrete conveyance that transports the pollutants from land to water.”
(To read the full article, go to bellinghamherald.com/2014/01/03/3403101/environmentalists-win-a-round )
For those of us concerned about the proposed Cherry Point coal terminal, this is an important case to follow, for that project will inevitably introduce tons of coal dust into Salish Sea waters — and right into the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve.
Coal dust is not just a problem in the water, it is toxic in the air, and, depending on the wind, can be blown miles on either side of the route it takes to the terminal. Fossil fuels are so last century. Time to speed the transition to renewable clean energy.