PALMER — As the Mat-Su Borough continues to debate a new rail spur line to Port MacKenzie, federal agencies are weighing in on the potential environmental impacts of the project.

The Borough assembly has examined several proposed routes to Port MacKenzie, including ones through Willow, Big Lake and Houston. Borough and railroad officials have said the new $300 million line would provide direct rail access for companies that export resources from the Interior by 2010 under current plans.

“We all support this high-speed freight train to our port as a statewide legacy project,” assembly member Cindy Bettine said. “I think this assembly needs to have input and time to evaluate the matrix.” The matrix to which Bettini referred is a table comparing proposed rail routes and connectors by considering 10 factors, which include:

• soil quality,

• need for new road crossings,

• whether land is available for acquisition,

• kinds of development in the area,

• designated land uses,

• impacts on wetlands and mapped anadromous fish streams,

• potential for archaeological sites in the area,

• fragmentation of designated recreation areas or refuges.

The last issue weighs heavily on the minds of state and federal agencies charged with protecting such land. The assembly has set a workshop date for Dec. 11. An agenda for that meeting has not yet been published.

Noting the amount of flexibility the railroad has in picking a route, “the expectation is that many of the project impacts will be avoidable,” says Aquatic Resources Unit manager Michael Szerlog of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a written assessment. Given the potential economic returns from the new rail line the EPA further states that anything feasible from an engineering standpoint to avoid impacts to the environment should be done.

Szerlog advises the EPA feels stream crossings should not impede fish or the natural functioning of bodies of water. He also warns of impacts to wetlands and suggests bridges and elevated portions of the rail line might best avoid impacting sensitive areas.

The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service has also weighed in with concerns about potential impacts on bald eagle populations and the potential for fragmentation of high-value, previously undisturbed habitat that could result from rail development.

Fish and Game Field Supervisor Ann Rappaport has told the Borough and railroad to begin planning mitigations for the extra development that can be expected around a railroad line, including expanded port facilities, as new development affects migratory birds, other wildlife and the habitat in general. Each alternative route should have in its development a study that quantifies and defines existing wildlife populations and makes plans to “avoid, mitigate and compensate” for those impacts, Rappaport says in her report to the Borough.

A 2003 rail corridor study estimates the project could destroy up to 294 acres of wetlands due to a wider right-of-way than currently proposed. Even a lesser fraction of that total would be a “substantial” loss, EPA manager Szerlog says.

Szerlog’s recommendation is that wetlands be avoided and floodplains and streams be bridged to protect existing drainage and water quality.

“Economic development can occur in a responsible manner that is protective of the rich natural heritage enjoyed by residents of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough,” he says in his recommendation.

The Borough also has strong input from the state’s Department of Natural Resources, which reports it would advocate for archaeological studies of any final route due to the lack of surveys done in that region and the likelihood that there may be sites of cultural significance.

Also, State Historic Preservation Officer Judith E. Bittner has noted that all of the routes intersect with the Iditarod Trail, designated by Congress in 1978 as a significant transportation route.

Project planners said public workshops in Willow, Wasilla, Big Lake and Houston provided invaluable information. Planners also met with the Willow Dog Mushers Association, the Iditarod Trail Committee’s executive director, state and federal agencies, and large landowners, including CIRI Corp. Planners gathered 269 individual public comments.

“The public pointed out a lot of things that weren't really evident,” said project planner Brian Lindamood of the Alaska Railroad Corp., the Borough’s business partner in the rail spur. “They provided depth in certain areas, such as soils issues near Horse Shoe Lake and land use such as the snowmachine trails and access to recreational areas.”

“The reason we are doing this is to provide information to the people who will be preparing the [environmental impact study]. The more information, the better off we are,” says Joe Perkins, project consultant for the Borough as well as a former state Department of Transportation Commissioner, in a report to the Borough. “We provided Alaska-specific information that we thought they needed to save them time.”

The federal Surface Transportation Board ultimately must OK the final route. The STB will hold its own public process as part of the environmental evaluation under the National Environmental Policy Act. The Surface Transportation Board could reach a decision in mid-2009, Borough spokesperson Patty Sullivan said.

The Borough remains fully behind the project and has so far spent $10 million in state money for impact studies.

The project is detailed at www.portmacrail.com.