Boulder County is joining several Colorado communities in a legal fight to block plans allowing a train loaded with crude oil to travel from eastern Utah through Colorado on a Union Pacific rail line.
The 88-mile Uinta Basin Railway would begin at the Uinta Basin oil fields and travel adjacent to I-70 in Colorado. The Surface Transportation Board approved the rail line in 2020.
Eagle County and the Center for Biological Diversity are petitioning the board’s approval of the railway in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. Boulder County this week ratified its decision to attempt to join nine other communities in the appeal.
The coalition of communities includes Glenwood Springs, Avon, Minturn, Red Cliff and Vail in Eagle County, along with Boulder, Chaffee, Lake, Pitkin and Routt counties, according to the Colorado Sun. The coalition is home to more than 423,000 Colorado residents.
The communities argue in their petition to the appeals court that the rail line would heighten wildfire dangers and cause other environmental damage.
The 110-car train could carry 65,000 to 350,000 barrels of Uinta Basin crude through Colorado every day in trains stretching more than 10,000 feet, the Sun states.
Since 1989, Boulder County has experienced at least nine major wildfires, including the 2021 Marshall Fire—the most destructive in Colorado history— which decimated more than 1,000 homes and over 30 commercial structures, according to the petition.
Although Boulder County is not on the I-70 corridor, part of the Union Pacific Line travels through it beyond the eastern entrance of the Moffat Tunnel, the petition states.
“We are concerned about the environmental/public safety impacts of numerous trains transporting crude oil through the county and neighboring communities,” Gloria Handyside, Boulder County spokeswoman said via email.
Glenwood Spring Mayor Jonathan Godes told the Sun that the rail line would have “devastating impacts to Glenwood Springs and other communities along the rail and I-70 corridors,”
“Most alarming is the complete lack of consideration for the extreme fire risk, and potentially catastrophic environmental and economic impacts that would occur if there were a spill,” Godes said.
