Judge green-lights rail project for now

PALMER — In a ruling issued Monday, a federal court judge declined to halt work on the Point MacKenzie rail extension project.

“The benefits of this project appear to be significant, while the costs of further delay, as the Ninth Circuit recently alluded to, appear to be great,” U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline writes in the opinion, referring to a federal appeals court ruling handed down in January.

That case involved the same plaintiffs — Alaska Survival, Cook Inletkeeper and the Alaska Chapter of the Sierra Club — suing the same plaintiffs —Alaska Railroad Corp. and the Mat-Su Borough. It shut the project down for months after the plaintiffs won a preliminary injunction.

But that lawsuit was a challenge to the decision of the federal Surface Transportation Board allowing the extension to go forward. The one Beistline ruled in Monday was a challenge to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit allowing the project to cross wetlands.

The Corps of Engineers action is still alive, though it seems clear that the plaintiffs have a tough row to hoe if they’re going to prevail. Beistline said that the Ninth Circuit ruling isn’t enough to kill the current suit, but only just barely.

“As plaintiffs point out, this decision alone may not be entirely dispositive of the issues before this court, it is close and raises a legitimate question regarding the likelihood that plaintiffs will succeed on the merits,” Beistline wrote.

A press release from Cook Inletkeeper on Monday describes the rail project as unnecessary and essentially amounting to a 35-mile dike across myriad wetlands that would fragment fish habitat and introduce invasive species.

“A recent economic analysis supports the legal challenge that the rail spur fails to meet the public need requirement necessary for the Corps to grant a permit for wetlands destruction,” the press release states. “The analysis by Ground Truth Trekking states the economic case for building Port Mac and the rail spur rests ‘on vast amounts of theoretical and unlikely future development in the rail corridor,’ including coal gasification, new mine development and cement production from a site north of Fairbanks.”

The borough, meanwhile, has long touted the rail line as a means to open up resources in the state’s interior to development. The story goes that those resources aren’t being developed now due to shipping costs. A shorter rail route to tidewater could make them profitable. Those resources include limestone, various metals and coal. Usibelli Coal Mine in Healy has expressed interest in using the line.

“The rail link has plans for eight bridges, up to 100 culverts and has incorporated crossings for wildlife and recreational trail users into it. The project is also purchasing 160 acres of wetlands to preserve them in exchange for the 95 acres of wetlands it is affecting,” the borough says in a press release on the ruling.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.