DETROIT (WXYZ) — A proposed railroad merger is promising thousands of new jobs, economic benefits, and an improved supply chain.
It has environmentalists sounding the alarm, particularly in southwest Detroit — which has a history of industrial pollution, and happens to not be far from an intermodal rail facility. Environmentalists and some local advocacy groups are worried the expansion will bring with it more air and noise pollution, to areas of the region already plagued by environmental risks.
If Canadian Pacific's $31 billion dollar deal to buy Kansas City Southern is ultimately approved by the Surface Transportation Board, its merger would mean the first single rail line to connect Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
The planned merger was announced last December, and has been hailed by both companies as a way to drive economic growth, enhance competition, improve the supply chain, and offer certain environmental benefits.
Dr. Michael Dorsey, vice chair on the board of the Michigan Environmental Council, is hoping the STB chooses not to approve the merger.
“This merger will exacerbate environmental harms broadly," Dr. Dorsey told Action News.
Dorsey, along with MEC's president and CEO Conan Smith wrote a letter to board seeking to stop it.
"We highlight the impacts on Southwest Detroit. In part because the intermodal facility will be there. But also because that area is already a site, we know from state regulatory officials as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, that southwest Detroit is already a center for environmental injustice, environmental racism," he said.
Dorsey points to the expected increase of train and truck traffic the merger would drive.
In a letter to the STB, attorneys for Canadian Pacific project that under the proposed merger, truck traffic in Detroit would increase by 87 per day, or 62%.
With the trucks already coming from Canada, the Marathon oil refinery, and a slew of other industrial sites in the area, generally speaking fresh air isn't guaranteed, longtime southwest residents say.
“The air just comes and you could smell it, it’s just horrible. It smells like things you don’t want to smell," said Jessica Hinojosa, who's lived in southwest Detroit her whole life.
"I feel like the smell and breathing it in, I feel like that effects our body inside, you know our lungs," she said.
In filings to the STB, Canadian Pacific claims that by diverting freight from trucks to rail, harmful emissions could decrease nationally as a result of the merger.
The board found the same, in its own draft environmental impact statement released by the STB's Office of Environmental Analysis (OEA).
"Because the increased rail traffic would be diverted from other rail lines and from trucks, OEA does not expect that the Proposed Acquisition would result in an overall net increase in air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions when measured at the national level. In fact, the Proposed Acquisition could result in an overall net decrease in emissions due to the expected diversion of freight from truck to rail transportation and the resulting removal of approximately 64,000 trucks per year from highways," according to the draft.
However, emissions locally is a different story.
"..OEA expects that localized emissions of air pollutants from locomotives would increase along certain specific rail line segments, which could affect air quality along those rail lines,"
Air quality is something southwest resident Kathryn Savoie thinks a lot about; and not just because of where she lives. She's also the director of equity and environmental justice at the Ecology Center.
She has a PurpleAir monitor in her backyard.
“It measures particulate matter pollution which is a kind of pollution we have in this area that we’re concerned about," she said.
The monitors are connected to the Internet and show pollution levels in real time. The Ecology Center has placed around 30 of them in Detroit; on the city's east side near the Stellantis Plant, in southwest Detroit, and along the Cass Cooridor in Midtown.
“These monitors allow us to really get a handle on what’s happening at a really local level," Kathryn said.
She pulled up the PurpleAir map to see what her monitor was showing; she was grateful for the recent storm.
“Every one of those dots is a monitor, and they’re all green," she said.
Green means healthy air quality. It's what Kathryn calls 'a good air day,' and they're not common enough in her neighborhood.
“On a bad air day it just feel oppressive, you know. You want to stay inside," she said.
We asked what her average week was like.
"I think on average we’re in the higher numbers in the green, and into the yellow and we often have spikes that are into orange and red, which is poor air quality.”
Kathryn hadn't read much detail about the proposed merger, but said she's worried increased emissions.
“We are already overburdened with air pollution and with trucks," she said.
“This is beyond Michigan," Dorsey told Action News of the merger.
"These increased trains will potentially compromise emergency response. And the companies involved have been told this by community after community.”
We reached out to Canadian Pacific for an interview, however we did not receive a response by our broadcast deadline.
In an emailed statement, CP spokesperson Andrew Waldron said "CP anticipates no increase in the average daily number of freight trains it operates in Michigan or Detroit as a result of the CP-KCS merger."
"Because moving freight by rail requires less fuel than moving it by truck, this diversion will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thereby avoid over 65,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually," he said.
In a media release on the merger, Canadian Pacific also points to nearly 20,000 created jobs.
Dorsey isn't buying that the benefits outweigh the risks.
"We speak and work with science and we work with the facts. And the facts are really on our side," he said.
The STB is expected to make a decision on the merger in 2023. It will hold a three-day hearing on Sept. 28-Sept. 30.
If you are interested in getting a PurpleAir monitor in your community, you can contact the Ecology Center.
To read the draft environmental impact study from the Surface Transportation Board, click here.
