This story originally appeared on Trains.com.
WASHINGTON — The Surface Transportation Board has taken Union Pacific to task for an ongoing lack of cooperation in a new decision on the railroad’s effort to construct a 6-mile rail line in Arizona’s Maricopa and Pinal counties.
The primary matter concerns UP’s request for an exemption for construction of the Pecos Industrial Rail Access Train Extension (PIRATE) to connect UP’s Phoenix Subdivision main line to industrial properties near Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. But the ruling released Thursday orders the railroad to rectify deficiencies in submissions as the board looks into whether UP engaged in “anticipatory demolition” of historic properties along the proposed route, resulting in damage to archaeological resources.
That damage was discovered as the board’s Office of Environmental Analysis prepared its Final Environmental Assessment, and led to the board’s placing a decision on the UP request on indefinite hold. [See “Regulators pause environmental review …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 1, 2023.] Last month, UP CEO Jim Vena wrote the board asking for a status update on the matter, saying the railroad and other interested parties have for six months been waiting “for the agency to provide a clear path forward to resolve the harms” and gain project approval. [See “Union Pacific seeks update on stalled environmental review …,” News Wire, Oct. 3.] Eight members of Arizona’s congressional delegation also wrote the board asking that it “prioritize decisions related to the PIRATE project to prevent any additional unnecessary delay.”
The ruling says UP has until Nov. 29 to produce documents the board says the railroad did not provide and to address other deficiencies regarding a log of documents the railroad says are covered by a claim of privilege and copies of email with insufficient information, such as dates and the author’s name. And it reinstates a schedule requiring submissions from UP and other interested parties on the “anticipatory demolition” question. Those submissions are due by Dec. 16, with replies by Jan. 13.
The board does not hide its unhappiness with UP. The decision says that “because UP’s conduct thus far has already caused delays in this proceeding, no extensions” of a Nov. 29 deadline to address those deficiencies will be granted “absent extraordinary circumstances that are outside of UP’s control,” and in a footnote says “UP is cautioned to respond with greater clarity and accuracy to any such future orders in Board proceedings.”
The strongest words, however, come in a concurrence from Board Chairman Robert Primus. He says the decision “serves as another example of UP’s inability to adhere to the Board’s guidelines and to provide timely and appropriate responses to Board orders.” Responding to Vena’s concerns about delays, he writes, “The Board takes disturbing and desecrating ancestral sacred lands extremely seriously and will not compromise the time needed to thoroughly investigate this matter” adding, “if Vena needs another reason why this matter has been delayed, he, again, has only his organization to blame, this time for its sloppy responses to the documents requested. … UP’s negligence caused the initial delay of this project and its ineptitude further exacerbated it.”
The full decision is available here.
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