The evening scene along the railroad tracks of Dunnellon looked apocalyptic to Bill White. Dark, wooden rail supports known as ties balanced in 10-foot stacks that stretched to the horizon.
“ I walked it for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, never got to the end of it,” he said. “It was like looking at some waste zone that has just been abandoned.”
Daytime brings a flurry of activity as railcars arrive and excavators unload old ties into the area’s grassy median.
They’re arriving in anticipation of a railroad tie grinding site planned by Texas-based Track Line Rail. The company tried to establish its first Florida site in Newberry earlier this year but left the city after regulators discovered its grinders were running without permits.
The company now plans to set up shop in Dunnellon. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection granted it preliminary permits earlier this month, but city leaders intend to intervene.
A different approach
When preparing his grinders in Newberry, Track Line CEO Dave Malay spoke to city staff before pursuing approval from FDEP.
He’s taking the opposite approach in Dunnellon.
The company submitted its application for an air permit for construction to FDEP in August, but city and county officials didn’t fully learn about the plans until this month. A spokesperson for Marion County said the county’s growth services team didn’t find any applications or reviews related to the site on which Track Line told FDEP it intends to operate.
That’s not a problem, said Chris Gilbert, the hazardous materials program manager for Alachua County who issued Track Line a cease and desist in May. Companies can generally apply for approvals in the order they prefer, he said, and since the lack of permits burned Track Line in Newberry, it makes sense the company is seeking those first.
But, since the company hasn’t been on meeting agendas, some residents feel it’s “a punch that you didn’t see coming,” said White. A former mayor and council member of Dunnellon, White is vice president of Rainbow River Conservation.
He worries about potential impacts to the river: an aquatic preserve and National Natural Landmark. The proposed grinding site is a little over half a mile away from one of its bends.
“I cannot think of any precautions that could be made that would make that acceptable,” he said. “Like all environmentally endangered procedures and processes, there is always a likelihood of failure.”
Railroad ties have a chemical coating to preserve and protect them from weather and insects. Creosote, a thick, black liquid derived from coal, is its main component. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies creosote as a probable human carcinogen but FDEP concluded the coated ties were non-hazardous after testing the company’s wood chips.
Still, the agency required the company to clean up its Newberry site before leaving given the analysis found high levels of some volatile organic compounds that were of concern to health and the environment, Gilbert said.
FDEP didn’t respond to WUFT’s request for comment about its analysis of the ties.
According to documents submitted for the company’s air permit, the grinding process could release up to 59 tons of tiny, airborne particles per year, more than the weight of a loaded 18-wheeler.
The smaller the dust particles, Gilbert said, the higher the concern.
While the body’s defenses fend off large particles, smaller ones can enter the lungs and, if they’re really tiny, the bloodstream.
“If there's any issues with the particulate that you're inhaling, then that becomes a health concern, no different than concerns you have with asbestos dust or coal dust or even silica dust,” he said.
Permit applications show the site expects to grind much less than it’s allowed to and to contain the dust using a canopy, an industrial version of the ones seen at beaches and soccer games.
Malay didn’t respond to WUFT’s inquiries.
The surrounding community
The company’s proposal raises concerns about environmental justice to Sarah Strohminger.
The Jacksonville resident and environmental advocate manages a food pantry in Dunnellon.
The proposed grinding site sits right behind the predominantly Black Chatmire neighborhood, she said, just outside of Dunnellon city limits.
About a quarter of residents within a mile of the site are people of color and almost half are low income, according to a demographic profile of the area from the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Particulate matter is going to be super bad for kids who live near there,” Strohminger said. She posted her concerns on social media, noting there was a house just beyond the site’s treeline. A Dunnellon resident told her it was actually a community center used as a gathering place for the nonprofit Concerned Citizens for Chatmire, formed in 1992.
The proposed grinding site “is 125 feet from what this small community has put together for themselves in the absence of a municipal government or access to resources,” she said.
“As a former elected official, it doesn't make any difference if you're a poor person in a low income home or if you're in a multimillion-dollar house, the government has the right to protect you,” White said.
Dunnellon’s City Council seems poised to do just that.
Dunnellon doesn’t have jurisdiction over the property since it falls outside of city limits, but staff wrote a letter opposing Track Line’s draft air permit.
The council will vote whether to send it to FDEP during a special meeting at 5 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27.
“Our community should not bear the burden of deteriorated air quality for an industrial operation that provides no benefit to our residents,” it reads.
FDEP granted Track Line preliminary stormwater approval in September. Its air permit is in the draft stage. The deadline to request a public hearing for the permit is Oct. 31.
