The California Coastal Commission thinks Mendocino Railway’s proposal to repair tracks and a tunnel between Willits and Fort Bragg needs environmental review. Earlier this year, The U.S. Department of Transportation announced it was awarding a $31.4 million loan to Mendocino Railway and its parent company, the Sierra Northern Railway, to rehabilitate rail infrastructure in northern and central California. The Federal Railroad Administration claimed that the work would not have significant environmental effects, but the Coastal Commission complained that it had not received the documents it needs to make that determination.
At its March 14 meeting in Sacramento, the Commission voted unanimously to send a letter outlining its position to the Federal Railroad Administration. The Commission believes the proposal does have reasonably foreseeable effects on the coast, since the section of track under question runs along the Noyo River, which feeds into the ocean and supplies up to half the drinking water for the city of Fort Bragg. A portion of the track also runs through the coastal zone.
Commission Deputy Director Cassidy Teufel specified the purpose of the March 14 discussion. “In this case, the Commission is not being asked to consider the merits of the project, its consistency with the Coastal Act, or if it should proceed,” he explained. “It’s simply considering if it would have coastal effects and therefore warrants additional review.”
Among the foreseeable effects the Commission anticipates are impacts to water quality from the removal and replacement of 32,000 railroad ties. A letter from the railway’s attorney expressed amazement over objections to old arsenic-laden ties being replaced with more environmentally friendly materials, but Teufel disputed the assertion. “Although the negative determination does not specify which preservative treatment would be used for the new railroad ties, a letter recently submitted by Mendocino Railway notes that they would be treated with creosote,” he said. “Creosote is one of the most environmentally harmful types of wood preservative, known to leave significant amounts of hydrocarbon residue in initial years that adversely affects aquatic, marine and terrestrial species of habitats.”
Fort Bragg City Council member Lindy Peters presented a letter signed by the entire council in closed session, describing the indispensable role of the Noyo River to the community. “It is a place to work, recreate or find tranquility of solitude, bolstering coastal tourism and our local economy,” he read. “In fact, many visitors come to Fort Bragg to ride the tourist excursion train nicknamed Skunk. And while we support the continued operations of the Skunk Train, the concerns expressed in the Coastal Commission’s Deputy Director Report are valid. Environmental review is an important step in the development process, serving to prevent or minimize reasonably foreseeable damage to the environment…It is imperative that the city’s primary source of drinking water is preserved.”
Former Commission Chair Donne Brownsey, who also lives in Fort Bragg, also called for environmental review and more transparency from the federal government, which has not made the loan application available either to the Commission or the city of Fort Bragg. “Mendocino Railroad is not being treated unfairly or being targeted by the Commission,” she asserted. “What is unusual is for a federal agency to request a negative declaration, given the scope of this project and to provide so little information and data on the elements of the proposal. Unfortunately, Mendocino Railroad has not inspired confidence in the community that it will follow state and local rules.”
In 2016, the Mendocino Railway received a cleanup and abatement order from the California Regional Quality Control Board for unauthorized discharge into Pudding Creek at the site of the collapsed tunnel, where there were reportedly no erosion controls in place. A local judge agreed with the California Public Utilities Commission that the train is not a federally regulated public utility. The matter is pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of appeals.
Commission attorney Matt Christian stated that the federal Coastal Zone Management Act, or CZMA, which grants the Coastal Commission its authority to regulate the coast, is not in conflict with the federal regulation of railroads.
David Schonbrun, Vice President of the Train Riders Association of California, believes the train is a federal concern, and rebuked the Commission for its ignorance of railroading procedures. He also pointed out that Commission Chair Caryl Hart also chairs the Great Redwood Trail Authority, which he blasted as anti-environmental.
“Do you really want the Commission to carry water for an agency with an anti-environmental policy?” He demanded, adding that, “Freight rail is the environmentally superior way to ship goods. This Commission should support getting trucks off the highway.”
Two years ago, when Mendocino Railway tried to purchase 13 miles of track north of Willits, the Surface Transportation Board found that the company did not have the financial wherewithal to rehabilitate the infrastructure, and that it’s not financially possible for freight to compete with trucks in the region.
Commissioner Mike Wilson, of Arcata, said the train’s proposal was difficult to analyze with so little information, including about the company’s finances.
“These are loans,” he noted. “So there’s an assumption that they get paid back, and that their revenue is based on those loans…These applications then have to make statements of how they’re going to generate the revenue, and within that there are potential impacts…It’s just hard to know what the impacts of this project will be. If you don’t even know what it’s carrying, you don’t know what they are. They are enumerated, maybe, in the application, but we don’t have access to that. So we don’t really know, and neither does the community.”
He also weighed in on the train’s claim that it provides transportation, reflecting that,
“When we talk about passenger rail, I think sometimes people conflate that a train that has people on it is passenger rail, but I think that that’s not transportation…because the people are just riding for amusement…It’s no more transportation than a roller coaster.”
Hart concluded by saying that she hopes the letter will improve communication between the Coastal Commission and the Federal Railroad Administration, “So that we can, first of all, get documents,” she said during her closing remarks. “For example, one of the documents that I think is important is the application for the loan, which details what the project actually is. What the impacts will be, how they will be mitigated. So I think getting those documents, opening up the line of communication, is the goal of the letter, and the goal, really, of the CZMA.”
The name “Skunk” becomes ever more appropriate.
I think Commissioner Mike Wilson’s idea of transportation is a bit narrow. Remembering back before the tunnel collapse and the bankruptcy, the train did carry many passengers back and forth between Willits and the coast and many stops in between. There were many people that lived in the hills that used the train to get into town because it was better than 25 miles of dirt roads. If a rider get on at point A and disembarks at point B, then that is passenger service. When I was young I used to ride several times a summer just for fun. Then again that was before the ticket prices rose to obscene heights. If the owners do get the tunnel open and resume full trips again, maybe they can rethink the fares. If the trips are more affordable for families than ridership goes up and costs are covered by volume, currently it seems to be the opposite. Maybe they could be convinced to offer fares for local travel that could compete with the cost of driving. Just a thought but I’m not holding my breath.
How long will it take for a new environmental study to be performed and reviewed by the Coastal Commission? Years? And what are the chances the CC will give it a fair hearing? It seems to me that the commissioners are like many members of our community, reflexively opposed to growth aka economic development of any kind. This development has added more force to the Coast’s Doom Loop.
Toxic tourist trap and an eyesore…….. get rid of the train and make it a multi-use path and emergency through-fare.
As much of a reformer I am, meaning I believe that there is a chance to reform government; as time progresses, I fear the only solution is complete separation. The bureaucracy is just too large. The machine cannot be repaired.
Are you going to buy the line from them and build out the multi-use path? I’d rather have a train to Willits again like we have had for many decades prior to the tunnel collapse…
Unelected bureaucrats continued to project power over the electorate. The Skunk Train all the way to Willits? Tourist economy and county jackpot.
Commission Deputy Director Cassidy Teufel specified the purpose of the March 14 discussion. “In this case, the Commission is not being asked to consider the merits of the project, its consistency with the Coastal Act, or if it should proceed,” he explained. “It’s simply considering if it would have coastal effects and therefore warrants additional review.”
There seems to be a lot of commenters here that seem to think that if we get answers to basic questions about how much damage Mendocino Railway’s project would do to our health and wellbeing, that it would doom the project.
All I can say is, if that is true – THANK YOU CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION!!!!!
Peter,
There was analysis and review, but just not by the Commission. Just because the Commission wants to increase their ever expanding sphere of influence doesn’t mean they should be allowed. Especially when it is to support Chairwoman Caryl Hart’s political agenda with one of her other commissions that she controls. You see, you’re missing the big picture.
It came as no surprise that the Great Redwood Trail Authority — also chaired by Caryl Hart— the same day notified the railroad that it is filing a federal application with the United States Surface Transportation Board to compel the abandonment of the railroad, trying to force an end to the Skunk Train’s almost 140 years of railroad service to the people and businesses of Mendocino County.
So Chris – you and your brother are the principal owners of the train – so open up your files! Let the public see EVERYTHING your companies have filed with all the government agencies about all the railways activities. After all you are asking us taxpayers to loan you a lot of our tax dollars. if as you say your acting in the public interest and not doing anything that damages the health of people or the environment – then you got nothing to hide! And by the way, if you and your railroad companies aren’t doing anything wrong – why not get the same permits and comply with the same state environmental requirements that every other business operating in the coastal zone comply with???
Oh – right your SPECIAL. You want to make your profits here in California but you don’t want to follow the same rules as the rest of us.
I have been sharing files and reviewing this for 4 years! We paid $500k for the government to hire specialist to review this. There is a process and we have adhered to it. We have followed all local, state and federal rules. The issue is the CC and City want to change the rules and make new laws.
Anyone who thinks a hiking trail by itself is superior to maintaining the ability to restore passenger and freight service from Willits south is not acting like someone with genuine concern about environmental impacts. Who wouldn’t want the option to hop on the train right in Fort Bragg and then transfer at Willits to connect to Sonoma and Marin Counties and the greater Bay Area? What about the option of shipping products from the Coast to inland? Fort Bragg keeps talking about the Blue Economy, including aquaculture, but how are we going to economically ship those products out of town for distribution? Rail cars seem vastly superior to me compared to more big trucks clogging up Highway 20 with diesel exhaust, particularly if the expanded electrical line can help support electrified trains!
OK Jacob, If MR is a realistic economic option for thu train service to the Bay Area – put together the PRIVATE capital investment to make it happen. In the interim as a taxpayer, I’m not interested in subsidizing Mendocino Railways/Sierra Northern Railroads scheme to use my tax dollars to promote their own profits. After all, if the private sector thinks MR is too risky a bet to accomplish what you are proposing – it’s probably a boondoggle. Just another corporation looking for a welfare handout at the public’s expense.
In 2006 Mendocino Railway was one of 2 bidders to make it happen. The NCRA (now renamed the Great Redwood Trail Agency), chose the NWP to operate the line between the Bay Area and Wilits. The NWP never delivered on its promises and I don’t think every paid profit sharing. And then the NCRA had to pay them millions to leave when they converted to be a trail focused entity. We have been willing to step up for 17 years!! Hard to get anything done when you have to work through Commissions run by people with questionable agendas.
PS I assume you’re the same Peter who submitted a letter to the Commission?
A federal loan for infrastructure does not amount to a subsidy for a private business; it is a lending mechanism that they will have to repay. I am not sure where you think your tax dollars are at issue here. We are not talking about a grant or federal contribution, although I have no doubt that some federal appropriations amount to giveaways or subsidies to private businesses (e.g., large subsidies for corporate mega-farms) but a loan doesn’t fall into that category. My impression is that people who have other concerns about Mendocino Railway (e.g., whether or not it appropriately has eminent domain powers) are just objecting to anything related to them. Even if they aren’t an exempt common carrier, we should all want our local infrastructure repaired and the money to do so will be spent locally, creating construction jobs and supporting local businesses. Getting this loan helps them do that and they have gotten loans in the past that I believe involved explicit support for their applications from the City of Fort Bragg. Juist because there is active litigation concerning unrelated topics doesn’t mean we need to fight over everything related to the Skunk Train.
Mendocino Railway’s Response to Coastal Commission’s March 14, 2024 Public Meeting
On March 14, the California Coastal Commission (“Commission”) held a meeting in Sacramento, California, during which it discussed plans to object to the Federal Railroad Administration’s (“FRA”) loan of $21.9 million to Mendocino Railway (“MRY”) to allow MRY to repair its collapsed tunnel, make other line improvements, and resume providing through-freight and passenger service to the people and businesses of Fort Bragg and Willits, California. Not only would this loan create new jobs and business opportunities, but it would improve the environment and safety by allowing freight to be shipped by rail rather than by less safe and more polluting trucks via narrow mountainous roads.
The statements by Cassidy Teufel, the Commission’s Deputy Director, revealed that the Commission failed to carefully review the information provided by the FRA, does not understand the scope of MRY’s project (or even the specific location of MRY’s railroad line), and belligerently refuses to respect federal limitations on its authority as a state agency to regulate the operations of federal railroads. These errors could have easily been avoided had the Commission engaged with MRY in good faith discussions instead of ignoring MRY and acting based upon misunderstandings and in an effort to illegally expand its jurisdiction.
The Commission’s discussion revealed that its true goal is not to protect our state’s coastline but to help State Senator Mike McGuire with his vanity project of tearing out Mendocino County’s last link to our national railroad network in favor of a hiking trail that even his Great Redwood Trail Agency (“GRTA”) estimates as likely to be used by as few as 50 people per day. A hiking trail will not benefit the people and businesses of Mendocino County. Nor will tearing out our County’s last link to our national railroad network. The only people who stand to benefit from McGuire’s efforts are his wealthy contributors in Sonoma and Marin County who will have fewer freight train passing their mansions. It is no coincidence that McGuire’s GRTA, and the Commission, have the same Chair: Caryl Hart, one of the wealthy residents of Sonoma County.
In pursuit of these goals, the Commission and its supporters have done their best to falsely portray MRY as nothing but a tourist train. But not only does the Commission’s portrayal ignore MRY’s freight and non-tourist passenger services, and MRY’s longstanding status as a federally regulated common carrier railroad, but it ignores the multi-year effort by the Commission, the GRTA, and their mutual supporters to prevent MRY from repairing its line and resuming providing through-freight and passenger services to the people and businesses of Mendocino County.
In reliance on these many misrepresentations—and despite its receipt of hundreds of letters opposing the Commission’s plans—the Commission voted on March 14 to proceed with its objections to the FRA, thereby aiding Caryl Hart’s and Senator McGuire’s efforts to shut down MRY’s operations and prevent MRY from reopening its tunnel, repair its line, and restore through-freight and passenger service to its community. It should come as no surprise that the GRTA—which as noted is also chaired by Caryl Hart—that same day notified MRY that it is filing a federal application with the United States Surface Transportation Board (“STB”) to compel the abandonment of MRY’s railroad, trying to force an end to almost 140 years of railroad service to the people and businesses of Mendocino County.
These actions and misrepresentations require MRY to clarify four things for the record:
First, the Commission ignores the fact that MRY’s line has provided freight and passenger services in Mendocino County for well over a century, long before the creation of the Commission or even of the Coastal Act. The Commission also ignores the fact that MRY has for two decades been a rail carrier subject to the STB’s exclusive regulatory jurisdiction. Deputy Director Teufel has also falsely suggested in both the Commission’s staff report, and at its hearing, that MRY seeks by its project to expand its railroad operations, when MRY is actually just seeking to restore through-freight and passenger service.
Second, the Commission’s discussion clearly showed that the Commission has not even tried to understand railroad maintenance. Replacing railroad ties does not require digging; rather, a tie exchanger is driven over the tracks and pulls up ties, akin to using a staple remover to remove staples from paper, which are then properly disposed of. None of that activity impacts any coastal resources. What the Commission envisions as foreseeable environmental impacts are based on the Commission’s egregious misunderstanding of routine railroad maintenance, not on how maintenance is actually performed.
Third, as the Commission knows, the FRA fulfilled its NEPA obligations as to MRY’s project by consulting with other federal agencies (such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, etc.), and with relevant state and local agencies including the Commission. As the lead agency with the sole authority and responsibility for determining whether MRY’s project risks adversely impacting the environment, the FRA analyzed the gathered information and made a federal determination as to any potential impacts and mitigation measures. After complying with these obligations, the FRA determined that MRY’s project would have “no effect” on California’s coastal resources.
Fourth, as the Commission also knows, the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995, Pub. L. No. 104-88, 109 Stat. 803 (“ICCTA”), vested the STB with exclusive jurisdiction over federally regulated railroad operations, prohibiting state and local government entities—such as the Commission—from trying to assert their own jurisdiction over the same operations. The Commission is thus prohibited from taking or imposing any actions, restrictions, or remedies that could have an effect on the management or governance of railroad operations. Though the Commission knows this, it does not care; the Commission’s statements establish that that is exactly what the Commission is trying to do. It is deeply troubling that Caryl Hart and the Commission she chairs are trying to misuse the FRA’s NEPA review to indirectly accomplish exactly what federal law prohibits them, and the GRTA, from doing.
If you are as outraged as we are by the Commission’s illegal overreach, by the efforts of Senator McGuire, Caryl Hart, and their GRTA to shut down our railroad and to tear out Mendocino County’s only connection to our nation’s railroad network in favor of a trail likely to be used only by local vagrants and a handful of tourists, by the Fort Bragg City Council’s pretended public support for MRY’s reopening of its tunnel and the resumption of providing through-freight and passenger service (while privately and in closed session doing its best to prevent both), and by the many local jobs that will be lost, and the many local businesses that will suffer, if these groups succeed in shutting MRY down and not only prevent MRY from resuming through-freight and passenger service but also prevent MRY from continuing to bring over 100,000 visitors each year to our region to spend their money with local hotels, shops, grocers, and restaurants, then now is the time to speak up. If you want MRY to remain in operation to serve our community, we urge you to make your voice heard by speaking up at these groups’ meetings and sending your concerns to them at the following addresses:
California Coastal Commission:
California Coastal Commission
Attn: Kate Huckelbridge, Executive Director
455 Market Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 904-5202
Kate.Huckelbridge@coastal.ca.gov
California Coastal Commission
Attn: Caryl Hart, Chair
455 Market Street, Suite 300
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 904-5202
Caryl.Hart@coastal.ca.gov
Great Redwood Trail Agency
Attn: Elaine Hogan, Executive Director
419 Talmage Rd # M
Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 463-3280
Elaine@thegreatredwoodtrail.org
Great Redwood Trail Agency
Attn: Caryl Hart, Chair
419 Talmage Rd # M
Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 463-3280
carylo@me.com
Bernie Norvell, Mayor
City of Fort Bragg
416 North Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 961-2823 ext. 145
bnorvell2@fortbragg.com
Jason Godeke, Vice Mayor
City of Fort Bragg
416 North Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 961-2823 ext. 147
JGodeke@fortbragg.com
Tess Albin-Smith, Councilmember
City of Fort Bragg
416 North Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 961-2826 ext. 146
talbinsmith@fortbragg.com
Lindy Peters, Councilmember
City of Fort Bragg
416 North Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 961-2823 ext. 148
lpeters2@fortbragg.com
Marcia Rafanan, Councilmember
City of Fort Bragg
416 North Franklin Street
Fort Bragg, CA 95437
(707) 961-2823 ext. 149
mrafanan@fortbragg.com
Senator Mike McGuire
1021 O St., Suite 8610
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 651-4002
senator.mcguire@senate.ca.gov
Congressman Jarod Huffman
2445 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5161
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
501 Low Gap Road, Room 1010
Ukiah, CA 95482
(707) 463-4221
bos@mendocinocounty.org
Hopefully soon, adjoining states will realize the damage a welfare state like California is doing and cut off both Power and Water being sent here. It only makes Environmental Sense.
The rail existed here for a very long time. How can you stop someone for repairs? Based on their logic the train should be gone. Personally, I think the city and coastal commission are just pissed how the Skunk Train obtained the Mendo Mill land and are trying to put up any roadblocks they can. The community in general wants the train to Willits and the town can make a lot of money from tourism. The city and CC seem to prefer hurting the Skunk Train business rather than considering the economic impact.