Union Pacific Railroad Car Washing Facility Burdens City of Spofford
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
When Union Pacific Railroad (UP) planned building a railroad car washing facility near Spofford, Texas in Kinney County, little did they know that community’s limited potable water capabilities would cause a burden on the local water system plant and its citizens.
Union Pacific is building an estimated $40 Million railroad car washing facility just south of the city limits of Spofford, Texas on Farm to Market Road 1572 on a 400 acres site running parallel to Union Pacific’s Eagle Pass to Spofford railroad line.
The UP railroad car washing facility requires allegedly between 2,000 to 2,500 gallons of potable water per day to operate its facility and provide potable water for approximately 120 workers. Some water experts estimate this figure provided by UP is conservatively low and will require larger quantities once the facility is fully operational.
The City of Spofford water system plant receives its potable water from the City of Brackettville, just 10 miles north of Spofford, through a five inch water line and once inside the city limits the line varies from three-quarters of an inch to one inch lines.
The dilemma faced by Spofford residents is whether their limited water system plant will be able to handle simultaneously their residents daily water supply demand as well as the new UP railroad car washing facility.
At an April 13, 2015 town hall meeting between UP representatives and citizens of Spofford, Texas, Mayor Alex Solis presented his City’s and citizens concerns regarding the limited water system capabilities to satisfy both without expansion of the community’s water system.
Representing UP at this April 13th meeting was Ivan Jaime, Director of Public Affairs for UP, legal counsel Fred Wilson, Senior Director of Planning and Engineering Mechanical Randell C. Gaston, and Civil Engineer Allan Lindskog.
While the Kinney County Commissioners Court and City of Brackettville, Texas City Council have already blessed UP’s railroad car washing facility coming into Kinney County, the beautiful people of Spofford, Texas have mixed emotions about the potential environmental contamination this facility may have on their air and water quality, the increased noise pollution from constant train locomotives coming in and out of the facility, the increased truck and auto traffic through town that will be generated, potential waste problems created by increased traffic and population, and, most importantly, destroying their tranquil and peaceful way of life and culture in this rural ranching community.
The City of Spofford does not have any funds to operate itself so all the city business is done through volunteers. For instance, Mayor Alex Solis and his wife and young children volunteer mowing the grass and lawn of the City Hall building and the City Water System plant to comply with state regulations and laws; Mayor Solis’ 84 year old mother, Paulita Solis, serves as a volunteer City Secretary; Mayor Solis’ sister, Sarah Terrazas serves as a volunteer City Manager; Mayor Solis’ brother, Julio Solis, serves as a volunteer water operator; and many other citizens also volunteer keeping this historic rural Texas community clean and orderly. An estimated 84 persons live in Spofford, Texas. The City has no waste collection removal, no fire protection, no municipal law enforcement officers, no employees, and no medical and safety providers. The citizens of Spofford want to keep the community as one of the best kept secrets in Texas. This is where UP comes in and is fixing to turn these citizens’ lives, tranquility, and peace around by building and operating this $40 Million railroad car washing facility.
During the April 13th meeting, several citizens of Spofford showed UP’s Director of Public Relations Ivan Jaime photographs of trash and waste generated by UP and its employees lying on the City limits without being picked up or hauled away by UP for many months despite reporting it to them. Some Spofford residents questioned UP’s commitment to being a good neighbor through its railroad car washing facility if it could not even pick up its employees trash and waste littered within the city limits. UP’s dismal record in taking care of its own current trash and waste within the city limits leaves many Spofford residents what their future fate is going to be like when the $40 Million railroad car washing facility opens up in October 2016 and becomes fully operational in January 2016.
Other railroad car washing facilities across the United States have a bad record of using toxic and hazardous chemicals to wash the railroad cars with and many reports of workers getting ill or dying from inhaling or using these chemicals. UP Senior Director of Planning and Engineering Mechanical Randell C. Gaston told the Spofford residents that they are not going to use toxic and environmental chemicals to clean the railroad cars with, but rather simply use “Simple Green.” Gaston noted that the majority of railroad cars that will be washed at this facility will be railroad boxcars used in the transportation of beer products manufactured in the Constellation Brands Modelo Beer Brewery in Nava, Coahuila, Mexico, which is the largest brewery in North America and exclusively ships all its beer-related products to the United Staes and Canada. Gaston could not dispel the Spofford citizens concerns that once the facility is built there is nothing to stop UP from washing any kinds of other railroad cars, including chemical cars.
Since the UP railroad car washing facility is located south of the Spofford city limits, the prevailing winds in the region generally come from the Gulf of Mexico or southeast, causing all of the facility’s smells, chemicals, noise, and potential air contamination to go directly into the Spofford citizens homes and eventually into their lungs, eyes, noses, throats, and bodies. Mayor Solis advised the UP representatives that the majority of people in Spofford are children and elderly, most are retired and on fixed incomes such as Social Security or Disability, and cannot afford to move elsewhere or pay any greater taxes which may have to be charged to provide water to the facility.
During the April 13, 2015 meeting Ivan Jaime Director of Public Affairs for Union Pacific opened up the informal Town Hall meeting by giving a brief explanation and history of the rail car maintenance cleaning facility project and why it has been designated to be built in this specific area.
Jaime explained that Union Pacific has made verbal requests to the City of Spofford to be able to connect to their water system. Jaime stated that there has not been a response yet from the City of Spofford, but that he had in his possession an official written request to submit to the Mayor Alex Solis of Spofford for consideration.
A citizen of Spofford stated that his families’ main concern was what kind of positive benefits would derive to Spofford from the Union Pacific facility besides negative burdens on the taxpayer in the area. The resident emphasized that Spofford does not have access to garbage and waste disposal units and if that could be an option that UP could consider assisitng them since they are already going to have to haul the railroad car washing facility’s trash to somewhere.
“In terms of the benefits to the community, we are going to be creating initially about 70 jobs growing to about 120 jobs in this area. We see that as a direct benefit in payroll that will be going to the employees as well as the investment for contractors in side benefits sales taxes and whoever can reap those benefits,” answered Jaime from UP. However, UP is going to run the Spofford railroad car washing facility through a private contractor and only three to four workers will be actual UP employees while the rest of the 120 workers will be employees of the contractor.
Jaime also stated that UP has started working on an internship program with the Bracketville School District. ”Those are just a couple of the examples of the benefits,” replied Jaime.
“Another one of the benefits that we’ve offered is to be able to work on some of the infrastructure that needs work to accommodate us, should we be allowed to connect to the city’s infrastructure. One of the offers that we have made is that we would make the needed upgrades at our cost to that infrastructure,” added Jaime.
Gaston stated that the request or consideration on a waste disposal unit for the residents would have to be looked at during formal meetings with officials of the City of Spofford
“Absent of an agreement, and we are getting pretty close to that timeline, what we are going to do is going to truck the water in. At that point in time, we will not be using the infrastructure. There will be no expenditure from Union Pacific on the water system. I just made that clear because I don’t want there to be confusion down the line on two things. I know the City of Spofford has to be really careful and what they are willing to say or can say because of the agreement with the City of Brackettville. I want it to be clear that they have not allowed us to tie into their infrastructure” yet, said Jaime.
One Spofford resident complained about how Union Pacific continuously leaves waste and other materials along the track line running through Spofford which eventually makes its way to resident’s properties and also does not help out the town’s appearance.
Another Spofford resident also stated that for some reason rail road trains that pass through the rail line, especially in the middle of the night, seem to blow their whistle more than needed and required.
“I know blowing the horn needs to be done but is there something that can be done for it to blow the bare minimum at least from 10:00pm to 6:00am,” said the resident.
“I completely admit that we need to a better job,” stated Jaime. Jaime explained that UP’s practice has always been to assure that materials used are properly stored in UP yards. Jaime did state that on the horn issue there were federal government regulations in place but did mention that there are programs that can be looked at to silence those horns if the proper steps are taken through the quiet zone program created by the federal railroad administration.
Another resident asked what assistance could UP assist the residents of Spofford to search for and obtain a grant to assist them in changing out their aging water system pipeline.
“It is something that could be looked at. Some of those grant funds are for specific uses so it may not be able to switch the grant around. We can not comment on what or what a grant can be used for,” said UP attorney Fred Wilson.
“In general, as far as what Union Pacific can assist and what we’d be willing to consider-we would definitely if we were a customer. That is what it is going to boil down to. If we depend on that water for our facility, we have a business interest that we keep it going,” stated Jaime.
Another resident asked if an environmental impact study of the UP railroad car washing facility had been done. Gaston replied “Yes.” The resident requested that UP provide a copy of this environmental impact study to the City of Spofford or place it in the County Library or County Clerk’s Office where everyone could read and review it. Gaston replied that he would look into it.
The lively town hall meeting went on for two hours into the evening with many Spofford residents’ questions unanswered as both sides agreed to continue their discussions on what can be done, if anything. The Spofford residents realize that they have a David versus Goliath dilemma with UP having all the money necessary to get their business will done and approved while the citizens of Spofford lack financial resources but have a big Texas heart and spirit to defend their lives, property, and way of life.
