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The proposed 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway would bring up to five two-mile long trains carrying oil from Utah through Colorado each day. The project would haul an average daily load of 315,000 barrels of waxy crude oil, ranking it among the largest daily transports of crude oil by rail ever undertaken in the U.S.
The U.S. Forest Service has approved a key permit to build the new railway through a protected area in Utah’s Ashley National Forest. As part of the approval process, federal regulators analyzed the potential “downline impacts” of the new railway, predicting that a spill of up to 30,000 gallons of oil would occur roughly once every five years.
Local opposition to the project is growing, especially in light of recent accidents with trains carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine, Ohio and just last week in the Yellowstone River. Colorado communities along the route have called the government's review “fatally flawed,” arguing that it didn’t adequately study the risks of spills, fires, and other accidents on some of the most precarious stretches of railroad in the country, including along the Colorado River.
This week, Colorado Newsline is publishing a five-part series called "Down the Line" that traces the eastbound route of the proposed rail line through some of Colorado's most scenic, fragile, and densely populated areas, including valleys, boomtowns, canyons, headwaters, and finally, the city.
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Beginning with the June migration, the miller, or army cutworm moth, touches nearly every denizen in the region—their faces, their pillows, their window panes—but rarely their hearts.”
