State rejects Citizen Option rail route

Public's suggested alternative meets several obstacles

MOSES LAKE - After 85 people attended a July open house, and 26 comments requested another alternative, the state showed its work this week.

Washington State Department of Transportation Rail Office Deputy Director Andrew Wood showed the state's findings for a rail route connecting Wheeler Road with Port of Moses Lake industrial property near Grant County International Airport.

The 26 comments asked a new route be considered which bypassed the existing developed area of Moses Lake.

Wood made the first of two public briefings Tuesday before the port district in the conference room at Grant County International Airport. Wood later made the same presentation before the Moses Lake City Council the same day.

Called the Citizen Option, the route used an old railroad track formerly used by the Northern Pacific, Wood explained.

"None of that track bed still exists," he said. "It's all been plowed in, in some cases there's buildings across it and some people have now made that their roadway to their property. In fact, I drove around the whole area and it was almost impossible to see where any of the road crossings would be."

In comparing the Citizen Option to the proposed alignment shown in July, the state found the Citizen Option:

• Was 15.4 miles compared to 4.5 miles

• Directly affected 31 parcels within a 100-foot right of way compared to 21

• Had 34 residences within 500 feet of the line instead of 16

• Had 0.9 acres of wetlands within a 100-foot right of way

• Had 11 public and an estimated five private road crossings instead of three public and five estimated private road crossings

• Went through agricultural and rural residential zoning instead of zoning for light and heavy industrial and urban commercial, rural urban reserve and urban residential zoning

The state's Surface Transportation Board and the department concluded the Citizen Option does not meet the goals of the port's proposed project, to increase economic activity, and are not carrying it forward in the environmental assessment.

"It would have gone through agricultural land rather than industrial and rural, it wouldn't provide rail access to the airport for those living along Wheeler Road and that area, which is industrial and urban reserve, has the future potential for keeping the railroad in the area," Wood said. "In addition the northern line would cross far more roads, it would require more right of way acquisition … and it would affect more residences and the greater length would make it much more costly."

Wood's presentation met with mixed responses from the roughly 30 people gathered in the audience.

"What it sounds like is a bunch of bureaucratic baloney, in the respect of, 'Hey, you can't do this because it's too expensive, so we'll go back to the original and do that,'" one man at the public meeting, who declined to give his name, told Wood. "You're just putting pressure on the first proposals. You guys haven't done a darn thing in suggesting something correct."

Moses Lake businessman John Wright said he owns a truck company and he is always concerned about train traffic compared to cars and trucks.

"We have to be concerned about the driving public. We are in our business every day," he said. "I don't think the rail can just walk in and say, 'This is what we're going to do.' I think we need to sit down and work this out, what's going to be best for the community."

While he believed Wood gave a good presentation, Wright said he wouldn't count the Citizen Option out.

"For the future, our children, my opinion is it probably is the best way to go, even though it costs more money," he said. "They're going to put this rail down Wheeler and 50 years down the road, they're going to be putting it out to the northern tier anyway. So let's save the money on Wheeler, put it all on the northern tier and get that built up so it lasts for 50 or 100 years."

Business owner Joe Wiberg said his original interest was having the state's proposed route be on the north side of Wheeler Road instead of the southern side. During the presentation, Wood told the audience the southern side was now the option because the northern side would have impacted the Moses Lake Municipal Airport.

The south side would have given Wiberg's business more options, but the state's representatives explained to him the impact it would have.

"It seems to make sense to me," he said.

Wiberg said he felt the Citizen Option would not serve the industrial direction currently existing because it would go through the farmland instead of the area already zoned for light and heavy industrial.

"Those are the companies and those are the entities that are going to be best served by being able to have a rail in their front yard, back yard or whatever," he said.

Columbia Basin Railroad President Brig Temple said the state arrived at its own conclusion, similar to the railroad's conclusions, independent of any railroad involvement.

"Matter of fact we had asked for what was going to be presented today, and to their credit they kept us out of it," he said. "We examined all of the road crossings, (at Roads) 5, 7, 9, 10, 11 and this (the existing proposed alignment) is the shortest route, it's the most expedient, it exposes the most land all along the Wheeler corridor. You're going to find there are going to be users that can take advantage of having the rail."

There is some thought the existing line through downtown Moses Lake could be rehabilitated, Temple noted. The new route is superior to the existing route in a lot of ways, he said, from the perspective of the City of Moses Lake, the port, industrial users and other stakeholders.

"The problems with the existing line have to do with it ties up all of the waterfront along there, it's a much longer route and also you've got some significant crossings there," he said.

For more about the project, contact Elizabeth Phinney at 360-705-6821, phinnee@wsdot.wa.gov or visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/freight/NorthernColumbiaBasinRailProject.htm.