City says draft EIS good news for railroad trench

Scott Sonner

Tuesday, May 16, 2000 | 8:37 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - City officials say the federal government's preliminary environmental review gives them a green light to proceed with a $213 million plan to build a 2.1-mile railroad trench through downtown.

But the city public works director warned any significant increase in costs could doom the proposal.

"Probably over $250 million would be a problem for us," Steve Varela said Monday.

"At this point in time, $213 million is a good figure. It gives us a good comfort level. ... We still think we have a viable project," he said at a briefing.

The proposed trench - on the drawing board in some form for more than 60 years - is aimed at improving health and safety by eliminating 11 rail crossings in downtown Reno. The latest plan was unveiled last year with an estimated price tag of $196 million.

"This project stems back to 1936. They knew it was a major impact to Reno and its commerce at that time," Varela said.

Most of the adverse environmental impacts would result from the noise, construction traffic and dust associated with digging the trench and building new tracks over a four-year period, according to the Federal Highway Administration's draft environmental statement.

The draft document released Monday raises concerns about encountering contaminated groundwater and the possibility of increased flow of pollutants into the Truckee River as a result of digging the 33-foot deep trench.

But it noted that the construction plans include ways to offset the pollution. And city officials said they're confident their water treatment plans would handle any scenario of storm flows.

"The contamination is exactly what we anticipated in the groundwater. It is why we have remediation in our plan," said Mark Demuth, a city environmental consultant.

"Some of the environmental horror stories we've been hearing are nonexistent," city spokeswoman Mary Henderson said.

Critics say the city has underestimated the costs, especially of easing environmental effects. Petroleum from leaky pipelines and chemicals, especially from old dry-cleaning businesses, are anticipated to be among the contaminants in the soil and water.

"I think $400 million is a minimum. The city should admit that," Washoe County Commissioner Jim Galloway told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Galloway is the one commissioner who voted against a one-eighth-cent increase in the local sales tax last year to help finance the project.

That local sales tax would finance nearly half of the project, with about one-fourth of the money coming from the Union Pacific Railroad, primarily from the transfer of property to the city.

The rest of the money would come from a variety of sources, including local hotel-motel room taxes and a small grant from the Federal Highway Administration.

One alternative backed by critics - building the tracks along the U.S. Interstate 80 corridor through town - would cost more than $500 million, Demuth said.

The environmental review is subject to a 45-day public comment period, beginning Friday.

Approval of the project is set to come before the Reno City Council in November after the final environmental impact statement is complete.

Varela said it's possible the cost of the trench will increase by then but he doubted it. Demuth said the cost was more likely to decrease because higher estimates were used in the draft environmental statement.

"I'm confident it will be at or less than the $213 million," Varela said.