No immediate halt on CSX Nolichucky repairs, but latest letter encourages advocates

ERWIN, Tenn. (WJHL) — A federal judge rejected efforts by whitewater and river advocates A temporary restraining order (TRO) that could halt CSX’s rail repair work In the Nolichucky River valley.

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Judge Martin Reidinger noted that some developments since the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit — including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) “Additional operating parameters for Reconstruction” — could render some of the relief sought moot. At least one kayaker, who has been voicing concerns for weeks about rebuilding following Hurricane Helene flooding, said he was encouraged by these parameters laid out in USACE’s Nov. 20 letter to CSX.

“They want to stop any dredging and removal of materials from the river below the usual high water level, and ultimately, that’s all we’ve been asking for the entire time,” Dennis Ashford told News Channel 11 after reviewing the letter on Monday.

The letter also includes requirements to repair already degraded areas of the riverbank from work that continued shortly after the Sept. 27 natural disaster that destroyed the railway line within the rugged valley.

“The words they’re putting into practice are amazing,” said Ashford, a member of American Whitewater, one of the plaintiff organizations. “My biggest concern is that it’s not clear what the consequences will be if we observe them going below this high water mark.”

Another nonprofit, American Whitewater and American Rivers, filed a lawsuit Nov. 18 against USACE and two other federal agencies in the Western District of North Carolina, claiming they gave CSX “illegal permission” to begin work without implementing required environmental protections. opened it. The main arguments advanced by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of the plaintiffs are that CSX’s contractor is “mining” river rock at levels lower than the “usual high water mark” and that endangered species are not adequately protected.

Last Wednesday, two days after the case was dismissed, SELC filed a TRO request.

Plaintiffs have not shown that they would suffer “immediate and irreparable” harm if a stoppage order is not issued by the week of Dec. 4, Reidinger wrote in a letter Friday. The work is estimated to take months and cost more than $200 million, work was halted Sunday and will not restart until Dec. 2, contractor CSX said.

Citing a Nov. 20 letter from USACE’s Joshua Frost, chief of the agency’s regulatory division in the Nashville District, the judge said the letter “contains parameters that directly address the impact on endangered species of Appalachian elktoe and Virginia spiraea.” stated meadowsweet).

USACE to CSX: ‘Complete the following initial corrective actions’

Frost’s letter includes a two-page description of “initial corrective measures” that CSX must complete before USACE will accept and process a “post-incident permit application” for the Tennessee studies. It also goes into detail about the “ordinary high water mark” (OHWM), which will likely impact where the contractor can or cannot excavate rock.

The last 2.5 miles of the pass before ending at Chestoa at the southern tip of Erwin is in Tennessee, and about five miles are on the North Carolina side. Frost’s letter applies only to the Tennessee chapter; here, CSX began operations just days after flooding destroyed the entire division on September 27 following Hurricane Helene.

Local officials focus on CSX rail work in Nolichucky

The letter states that CSX began coordinating reconstruction efforts with USACE’s Nashville district on Sept. 30 and formally applied for the USACE permit on Nov. 8. The letter references Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. Regulates work in or affecting the navigable waters of the United States.

USACE found that Chapter 10 was certainly valid. Frost wrote that corrective measures that must be taken before a permit is accepted include:

• Conducting “as much work as possible” not only on dry ground but also below the OHWM.

• Cessation of “screening and/or removal of materials in the stream.” Materials used to recreate the “toe slope” (underneath the end rail bed) and for backfill or final grading cannot be dredged from under the OHWM.

• Using only “previously disturbed areas” for access and debris removal.

• Immediate stabilization of already degraded river banks by temporary erosion control methods and natural seeding, after consulting the hydrologist and designing and presenting an appropriate restoration plan.

• Use of “locally sourced, appropriate materials” for riverbank reconstruction, such as natural soil, rock and vegetation not recovered from beneath the OHWM.

• “(M)inimize potential adverse impacts” to Appalachian elktoe and Spiraea virginiana; this includes special marching orders.

• Refuel equipment outside U.S. waters and limit blasting to areas not in or near U.S. waters unless they demonstrate that it is necessary and receive prior written approval from USACE.

Frost’s letter warns CSX that it should base its OHWM designation on both technical data and observed “field indicators,” especially given the changes wrought by the disaster.

‘Next steps to ensure North Carolina side is protected’

Ashford, who was one of the first skiers to alert agencies to his concerns, said he hopes the letter is not “too little, too late” and that important steps that need to be taken now include ensuring the Tennessee process is implemented. Similar rules apply to North Carolina.

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“Almost all material accessible below normal high water has been removed by CSX in Tennessee… but it is encouraging that we at least have in writing what they want to see and can now apply it to the Wilmington area. he said.

“We have video evidence of CSX digging in the river channel in Poplar, North Carolina,” Ashford added.

He also wants to know if regular inspections will be conducted on the Tennessee side to ensure compliance.

“If we find them digging below this usual high water mark, will there be some kind of hotline where we can send some information and then they can investigate that really quickly? Until we can lay out some possible consequences, once again, it would be kind of like asking for forgiveness after the fact .”

CSX has said in multiple statements to News Channel 11 that it plans to rebuild the line in compliance with regulatory requirements and in a way that protects the environment. He was admitted to the case for reference purposes and said in opposition to the TRO motion that “rerouting trains for hundreds of kilometers around this existing bottleneck is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars.” Provide a time frame for this loss.

The rerouting added an average of 400 miles to each affected shipment, and more than 30 CSX employees working the “Blue Ridge Subdivision” line were furloughed or transferred, the filing states. It claims that rebuilding will help communities already affected by disaster “immediately obtain vital energy resources, construction materials, and consumer goods they need to get back on their feet.”

It also notes that CSX is “refraining from performing certain work below high water in North Carolina until an emergency permit is obtained.”

And he argues that rebuilding, which “will create jobs, strengthen local economies devastated by Hurricane Helene, and generate significant tax revenue,” isn’t just important for CSX.

“Further significant outages would impact the Nation’s economy due to necessary rerouting due to delays in shipments of critical consumer and industrial goods,” wrote CSX advisors W. Dixon Snukals and Eugene E. Mathews. “Not only CSXT, but the nation is also affected by the ongoing disruption of CSXT railways. “The public has a lot of interest in getting the Blue Ridge Subdivision back up and running.”

Plaintiffs and all of the people who told News Channel 11 they were concerned said they fully support CSX’s need to rebuild the rail line across the causeway and that their concerns center around how CSX is handling the effort.

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