Volume , No. covering the 2nd Session of the 109th Congress (2005 - 2006) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“DM&” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S8042-S8043 on July 20, 2006.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
DM&E RAILROAD LOAN FROM THE FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION
Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I have arisen previously to talk about a proposal of the DM&E Railroad to reconstruct its rail line across southern Minnesota in order to run up to 36 unit coal trains, rail cars containing grain and other agricultural products, and possibly shipments of hazardous materials. The DM&E is presently seeking a $2.5 billion low-interest loan from the Federal Railroad Administration for this project, which the company initially said would be financed to the private capital markets.
Evidently unable to attract that necessary financing, DM&E has now turned to the American taxpayer to assume the enormous financial risk that such a project entails. If the project were to be successful, the financial benefits would go to DM&E's executives and investors. If the project were to fail, the losses would be paid by American taxpayers. It is for that reason that I have urged the Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration and the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, who have the ultimate decision-making authorities, to exercise all necessary due diligence before their decisions about this enormous financing.
Previously, I have also expressed the strongest possible concern about DM&E's intention to run this rail line through downtown Rochester, MN, and immediately adjacent to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic and Rochester City officials vehemently oppose DM&E's intended route and maintain that it would be catastrophic to their clinic and their city. I agree.
The Mayo Clinic is known and respected nationally and worldwide for its medical excellence. Last year, the Mayo Clinic saw over 1,700,000 patients who came from throughout Minnesota, our country, and the world to seek the best possible medical care. The Mayo Clinic is the largest private employer in Minnesota, employing over 28,000 people, including 2,400 physicians.
In addition to the serious financial questions surrounding this project and major environmental concerns across its intended route, new information has just come to light that demonstrates even more conclusively how unacceptable its proposed route through downtown Rochester, MN, and adjacent to the Mayo Clinic would be. According to a report released today by the Mayo Clinic, but using public, factual information, DM&E has one of the very worst safety records in the entire U.S. railroad industry. In fact, last summer, Mr. Kevin Sheiffer, President and CEO of DM&E's parent company, told DM&E employees, in their newsletter, ``We have a very poor safety record.''
The report discloses that from 2000 through 2005, the DM&E reported train accidents at a rate 7.5 times higher than the national average; during 2005, the DM&E's rate of accidents at crossings was 2.3 times higher than the national average; the DM&E had the highest rate of employee casualties among regional freight railroads in 2004, and was a close second in 2003 and 2005; during the past 10 years, DM&E had 107 accidents involving trains carrying hazardous materials, including a record 16 in 2005; and since 2003, when the Federal Railroad Administration loaned DM&E $233 million, DM&E's main track accident rate has soared to eight times the national rate--a 175 percent increase over its pre-loan rate.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the the overview of this report, ``The Sum of All Fears: Unsafe Railroad Plus Unsafe Plan Equals Disaster,'' and the forwarding letter from the Mayo Clinic to The Honorable Joseph H. Boardman, Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, be printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, follows:
July 20, 2006. Hon. Joseph H. Boardman,Administrator, Federal Railroad Administration, Washington,
DC.
Dear Administrator Boardman: On May 8, 2006, the County of Olmsted, the City of Rochester, Mayo Clinic, and the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce submitted an independent study by a prestigious accounting firm setting forth detailed reasons why granting a $2.5 billion loan to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E) posed a substantial risk to the American taxpayers that the loan will not be repaid. We believe that documented risk to the taxpayers is reason enough for the loan to be denied.
In addition to the substantial risk of default, the public safety impact of any loan to the DM&E must be considered, especially given the DM&E's abysmal safety record as outlined in the enclosed analysis. In light of the DM&E's record as the most unsafe regional railroad in America, granting a $2.5 billion loan to the DM&E would clearly and dramatically increase the public safety risk to the residents of Rochester and the patients and physicians at Mayo Clinic. It would also violate the statutory admonition that the Secretary of Transportation shall give priority to projects that ``enhance the public safety,'' and undermine the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA) statutory obligation to ``carry out all railroad safety laws.''
The proposed loan would not enhance the public safety. To the contrary, the proposed loan would fund a project that could have terrible consequences for the residents of Rochester, Minnesota, and the patients, doctors and scientists at Mayo Clinic. Transporting hazardous materials, at high speeds, on one of the country's most dangerous railroads, is an ``accident'' waiting to happen. If that accident were to occur in the City of Rochester near Mayo Clinic, then the consequences could be catastrophic.
The safety problems at the DM&E are well documented by the FRA itself. Last October, the FRA cited the DM&E for
``numerous problems with management and implementation of
[its] safety program.'' The FRA should carefully consider the safety consequences because granting the proposed loan would simply reinforce the DM&E's attitude that safety does not matter. We believe that denying the loan would make it clear that safety comes first.
For these reasons (and the reasons set forth in our May 8, 2006 submission), we respectfully submit that the DM&E's loan request should be denied. We also reiterate our previous request for the opportunity to meet with you to discuss the merits of our submissions.
Sincerely,Mayor Ardell Brede,
City of Rochester.Glenn S. Forbes, M.D.
CEO, Mayo Clinic Rochester.John Wade,
President, Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce.Dennis L. Hanson,
President, Rochester City Council.Kenneth D. Brown,
Chair, Olmsted County Commissioners.
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The Sum of All Fears: Unsafe Railroad Plus Unsafe Plan Equals Disaster
Overview
The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad (DM&E), a regional freight railroad, is seeking a $2.5 billion loan from the United States government, backed by the American taxpayers, for a major expansion that would allow trains to carry coal and other freight, including hazardous materials, through the heart of downtown Rochester--a few hundred feet from Mayo Clinic--at speeds up to 50 miles per hour. The DM&E refuses to limit the number of trains through Rochester and refuses to restrict the type of cargo it carries through Rochester near Mayo Clinic.
The Secretary of Transportation must consider the effects of such a loan on the public safety and a loan should not be granted to the DM&E because it would expose Rochester and Mayo Clinic to the safety risks inherent in the transportation of hazardous materials by a railroad with long-standing safety problems.
The DM&E has one of the worst safety records of all U.S. railroads:
1. From 2000 through 2005, the DM&E reported train accidents at a rate 7.5 times higher than the national average;
2. During 2005, the DM&E's rate of accidents at crossings was 2.3 times higher than the national average;
3. The DM&E had the second-highest rate of employee casualties among regional freight railroads in 2004 and 2005;
4. During the past 10 years, DM&E had 107 accidents involving trains carrying hazardous materials, including a record 16 in 2005; and
5. Since 2003, when the Federal Railroad Administration
(FRA) loaned DM&E $233 million, the DM&E's main track accident rate has soared to eight times the national rate--a 75 percent increase over its pre-loan rate.
The U.S. government has repeatedly identified safety problems at the DM&E. In 2002, the DM&E signed an Expedited Consent Agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) agreeing to pay a civil penalty and correct violations of federal regulations. In 2005, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) cited and fined the DM&E for serious safety violations. The FRA placed the DM&E under a Safety Compliance Agreement in October 2005.
The DM&E has claimed that its abysmal safety record is the result of old track, but the FRA has rejected that excuse--most recently in its October 2005 Safety Compliance Agreement. During the past six years track defects caused only about one-half of the DM&E's train accidents and track defects had nothing to do with the company's high rate of accidents at highway-rail crossings or its high rate of employee casualties. New track will not change the company's cavalier attitude toward safety.
In 2003, the FRA entered into a $233 million loan agreement with the DM&E. Since that time the DM&E's poor safety record has gotten materially worse--not better. There is simply no reason to believe that lending the DM&E another $2.5 billion would change the result or the company's approach to safety.
Rochester, Minnesota, is home to 40 per cent of all the people who live along the DM&E's proposed expansion route. Rochester is also home to Mayo Clinic, one of the world's leading medical centers. Many of Mayo's patient-care facilities are within hundreds of feet of the DM&E's tracks--at ground level. An accident involving the spill of hazardous materials near Mayo Clinic, with its vulnerable patient population, would be disastrous. The safety risks posed by an unsafe railroad transporting hazardous materials at high speeds near a world-renowned medical center should not be subsidized by the U.S. government. It is wrong for a safety organization like the FRA to reward a company for disregarding the safety of the public and its own employees. The American people would be shocked to learn that the U.S. government is considering giving an unsafe railroad one of the largest loans to a private company in the history of the United States of America.
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SOURCE: E RAILROAD LOAN FROM THE FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION
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