02-18-2002 Port of Houston Expansion Review Committee Meeting

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2/15/2002 g:3o am Draft • Delays will be caused at rail crossings and major thoroughfares due to increased vehicular and rail traffic. The DEIS presents references to roadways that will need to be improved upon but does little to discuss the actual additional traffic and the burden it would place on area residents. No consideration has apparently been given to conflicts with existing vehicular traffic. The only suggestions made are the widening of Port Road from the project site to SH 146 and "proposed interchange and ramp improvements in the vicinity of the Port Road and SH 146 interchange." The DEIS acknowledges that Red Bluff Road, Port Road, and SH 146 will need improvements in future years based on projected growth with or without the Bayport Terminal. As for rail traffic, the DEIS is even more vague, stating only that "The site is located so that trains from the site could easily be consolidated with those from the Barbours Cut Terminal" and suggests "road/rail grade separation at new rail crossings at SH 146." • The EIS addressed the impact to the transportation system on an area basis but does not address localized impacts. Local communities, which are already subject to the worst environmental impacts, will thus realize immediate impact on their surface transportation and this must be discussed. • An overpass must be constructed where Fairmont Parkway, a major thoroughfare, crosses the new inter port railway. This overpass and the highway modifications at the entrance to the port must be in place by the date the port begins operation. The DEIS erroneously implies that the Fairmont Parkway grade separation is fully funded by the TIP and PHA commitments. Harris County only recently agreed to the funding arrangements. The TxDot Agreements have yet to be signed. SHIPPING • The distance between ships moving into position at the docks may be inadequate to prevent collision and erosion. • Ships entering the Bayport Terminal do not have to comply with the State air emissions reduction efforts and will bring their emissions into close proximity to a highly urbanized, residential area. • The DEIS does not speak to reducing or mitigating the increased levels or organotin pollution and other marine vessel coatings and materials, which will come from the additional increase of foreign flagged vessels entering Galveston Bay. Use of antifouling coatings to reduce the organic growth of marine life by