Bellingham Comments from Digital Recorder - EISs for the Proposed ...

GATEWAY PACIFIC TERMINAL EIS SCOPING HEARING VOL. II
COURT REPORTER: BETH DRUMMOND PROCEEDING DATE: October 27, 2012
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1 prove significant health effects to exposure to everyday
2 pollutant levels that are below national EPA guidelines.
3 The data show, in any effect, no specific safe
4 threshold. A recent study from the U.S. Environmental
5 Protection Agency states that the Puget Sound region ranks
6 in the country's top five percent of risk for exposure to
7 toxic air pollution.
8 A study in 2010 by the Puget Sound Clean Air
9 Committee in New York City and Washington showed that diesel
10 emissions remain the largest contributor to potential cancer
11 risks in the Puget Sound area.
12 A recent health assessment was done in Spokane to
13 assess cancer risk from diesel particulate matter in the
14 areas surrounding the Burlington Northern Railroad in
15 Spokane. And they concluded that there was a several-fold
16 increase in risk to develop cancer in the neighborhoods
17 surrounding the rail yard.
18 So I request that the scoping include the
19 analysis of the increased risk of cancer in terms that are
20 easy to understand by the public. Because the rail lines
21 transect most needed population centers in Washington and
22 Montana and Idaho, these need to be included in the
23 analysis.
24 From a physician's perspective, it would be
25 unethical and irresponsible to exclude communities from the