News

DuPage Declines Land Sale

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County recently denied the Canadian National Railway’s (CNR) request to purchase district land near Bartlett for a proposed railroad expansion.

“We’re not a land bank for anybody,” said District President Dewey Pierotti on March 4 after the Forest Preserve Commission voted to send letters to the railway and the Surface Transportation Board (STB), informing them that the district has no authority to sell land to CNR, nor does CNR have the authority to take it.

Back in September 2007, the Canadian railway announced that it had acquired a major portion of the Elgin, Joliet, & Eastern Railway Co. (EJ&E) and aimed to improve service to customers by bypassing congested freight traffic in Chicago.

Within a proposed action filed with the STB to acquire 180 miles of the EJ&E Railway, CNR hoped to use an acre of land in the Pratt’s Wayne Woods Forest Preserve and 2.4 acres of Commonwealth Edison property to connect their lines.

However, the forest preserve land in question is comprised of critical wetlands and the district took extra measures to ensure that the railway could not override their decision. “Our legal counsel reviewed the Downstate Forest Preserve Act, consulted legal staff of the Illinois Commerce Commission, and explored U.S. Constitution provisions to confirm that the private railroad could not claim eminent domain,” says John Oldenburg, director of natural resources.

Consequently, the CNR has proposed a tightened radius for their connection in an attempt to avoid forest preserve land.

District involvement continues, however, as the STB prepares an environmental impact statement assessing potential adverse affects of using EJ&E tracks which bisect or pass four of DuPage County’s forest preserves.

“This will markedly increase overall freight traffic in the area,”says Oldenburg, “which increases the frequency of trains that could encounter wildlife and users, creates noise and vibration that could interrupt wildlife breeding success and predator-prey relationships, and negatively affects habitat suitability to existing threatened and endangered species.”

A variety of potential impacts to natural and water resources are being reviewed for Forest Preserve Districts in Lake, Cook, Will, and DuPage Counties by a collaborative stakeholder group of local, state, and federal agencies. The group will review issues ranging from endangered species to equestrian recreational activities.

— Divina Baratta