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Omya rail spur plan draws fire

January 26, 2005
By ED BARNA Correspondent

MIDDLEBURY — Several alternatives that would move Omya's marble hauling trucks off Route 7 and onto rail have received a cool reception from local residents.

Faced with state-imposed limits on how many trucks Omya Inc. can ship from its Middlebury quarry south along Route 7 to its calcium carbonate plant in Florence, the company, state and local officials, environmental groups and Vermont Railway have been exploring ways to move the marble ore from trucks to rail.

"The purpose of the project is to provide for the safe and efficient transportation of freight to and from Middlebury, Vermont," said a draft "Purpose and Needs Statement" that was part of a packet of information handed out at a meeting last week attended by 50 people at Middlebury's municipal gymnasium.

McFarland-Johnson Inc., the consulting firm hired by the Vermont Agency of Transportation to devise an Environmental Impact Statement for the "Middlebury Rail Spur Project," outlined a six-phase, 26-step process, which won't be completed until 2006 at the earliest.

McFarland-Johnson representative Jed Merrow said the process was designed to include public comment at every stage, with Thursday's meeting a "scoping" meeting to determine all possible alternative solutions to the truck traffic problem and any issues that might make it advisable to cross some alternatives off the list.

At the hearing, Vermonters for a Clean Environment circulated a letter critical of Omya and the process. Addressed to Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, it alleged that Omya has violated several of its permits.

Several speakers made the same arguments as the VCE letter alleging that an expansion of the Florence plant would result in increased air pollution, increased use of chemicals and oil and increased potential for water pollution.

The letter urged that funding for the Middlebury rail spur should be put in escrow and the project put on hold until Omya is in compliance with state regulations.

Omya officials have denied any such violations and have maintained that the lack of better access to the Middlebury quarry has caused Vermont to lose tens of millions of dollars of investment that would benefit the wider economy as well as the Florence plant.

Salisbury Conservation Commission chairman James Andrews told the meeting that he was not impressed with the company's track record.

"I have run into them on a number of occasions, and I'm not impressed with how they handled themselves," Andrews said.

Merrow and McFarland-Johnson engineer Gene McCarthy maintained that many businesses could use a better road-to-rail link, including the large J.P. Carrara & Sons concrete operation in Middlebury.

But the argument failed to impress critics like Sharon Duckman of Salisbury, who pointed to Omya's name in the purpose and needs statement. Duckman said the project would never have been proposed in the first place except for the company's desire to expand.

The "need" part of the purpose and need statement said traffic studies have found that trucks and buses account for 7 percent to 12 percent of the traffic on Route 7 in the Middlebury area. Omya's 115 round trips to and from the quarry constitute about 25 percent of the truck traffic on the highway, the statement said.

In Pittsford and Brandon, the high volume of trucks affects pedestrian safety, access to businesses, and "the character of these village centers," the needs statement continued.

"The trucks have also raised concerns about aesthetics, traffic, vibration, noise, and economic impacts," it said.

Salisbury residents, a large majority of those who spoke, said siting a truck-to-rail point on the west side of their town would simply shift the impact to the north. A newly built school along one mapped route and the presence of school buses, were major concerns for some.

Another problem, said Salisbury's Select Board chairman Jack Beasley, is that any truck route would have to be paved and in the long run would have to be maintained by the town.

"It is the policy of the town of Salisbury that they remain unpaved," Beasley said.

Resident Barrie Bailey pointed out that in warmer months there are times when the town's farmers make frequent trips to and from their fields. The truck route identified by a previous study is so steep in places that winter salt would cause serious damage to natural areas, she said.

Patti Romp said that she had contacted Vermont Bicycle Tours and was told by their manager that a truck route would cause them to discontinue bike trips they take through Salisbury several times a year. That would hurt area inns, she said.

The state's decision to fund an EIS began to take shape in the 1990s when an Act 250 decision set a daily limit on the number of marble-carrying trucks Omya could haul from its Middlebury quarry south on Route 7 through Brandon.

While the decision addressed concerns about noise, vibration, traffic and disruption of Brandon's historic business district, the decision also limited Omya's ability to expand its Florence calcium carbonate plant, Merrow said.

The Legislature funded a 1999 study that looked at the economic and environmental impacts of 11 transportation alternatives, he said.

In the end, the preferred solution was a new truck route that would continue the Middlebury quarry access road across Route 7 that would link up to the Vermont Railway line that runs south to the Florence plant site in Pittsford, he said.

By looking at that and other studies and talking with an advisory committee of state, local, Omya and Vermont Railway representatives, McFarland-Johnson identified alternatives in Middlebury (rail spur, truck-to-rail), Salisbury (truck-to-rail), Leicester (truck-to-rail) and Brandon (bypass), which attendees spent the first half hour reviewing on large maps.

It should not be assumed that the earlier study's first choice of a rail spur was the best option, and doing nothing would be among the possible outcomes, Merrow said.

The $20 million, 3-mile rail spur option between Omya's Middlebury quarry and the main rail line would take off 75,000 truck trips a year from Route 7.

The spur is part of a massive $120 million project that involves the relocation of the downtown Rutland railyard and an upgrade of tracks between Bennington and Burlington.

The previously preferred route to the rail line went through part of Middlebury near the crossing for the former Three Mile Bridge, where a new bridge would have to be built.

Gioia Kuss, the executive director of the Middlebury Area Land Trust, said the spur as outlined goes through five areas with perpetual conservation easements, which are essential to her group's efforts to create a green zone ringing Middlebury.

Beasley seemed to sum up the tone of the hearing when he observed, "Most of you already know that a large number of the proposals just don't cut it. But you have to spend our taxpayers' money so we can tell you these proposals don't really get it."

Agency of Transportation project manager Susan Scribner said going through the EIS process is essential in order to obtain federal funding.

Money for improving the freight rail situation north of Rutland had been in the 2004 federal transportation bill, but the bill failed to pass Congress. However, a new transportation bill might also include such an appropriation, Scribner said.