BNSF Railway fights Sierra Club over ‘Coal Dust’ Lawsuit

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The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Company is fighting a Sierra Club lawsuit in Washington State, calling the suit a “logically meritless” challenge.

BNSF, the railway that rolls throughout Oklahoma carrying Wyoming coal to electric-generating plants responded this week to the late July lawsuit in which the Sierra Club claimed coal dust regularly flies off trains and into waterways in Washington state.

The suit was filed three years ago and amended in July to include the Sierra Club’s coal dust claim. The amended complaint alleged the railway violated the Clean Water ACT (CWA) by discharging coal chunks, dust and other related substances into the waters of the U.S. without a permit to do so.

At the time of the filing of the amended complaint, Cesia Kearns, a Senior Campaign Representative of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Exports campaign stated, “BNSF and the other coal shippers had two months to figure out a way to stop polluting our waterways and communities with coal dust but they chose to do nothing to find a solution. After years of railroad and coal companies playing the coal dust blame game, the last two months proved we can only expect more of the same from these companies.”

FNSF is one of the largest coal transporters in the country and has an average 4 trains or 480 open-top rail cars through Washington every day. BNSF ships nearly 300 million tons of coal through 28 states each year.

Testimony by BNSF before the Surface Transportation Board revealed each rail car loses an average of 500 to 3,500 pounds of coal dust.