DE BEQUE, Colo. 鈥 As they head east out of the bottomlands of the Grand Valley, trains on the Union Pacific鈥檚 Central Corridor continue to follow the Colorado River in reverse, climbing gradually into Garfield County, where the rocky cliffs and sagebrush-spotted scrubland of the high desert begin to give way to the gentler slopes and lush alpine forests of the Rocky Mountains.
The railroad and Interstate 70 run in parallel through this narrow stretch of the Colorado River Valley for 60 miles, rarely separated by more than 100 yards as they pass industrial lots lined with frac tanks and truck-mounted drill rigs, and narrow strips of Bureau of Land Management acreage where sheep graze beside natural gas compressors and flare stacks.
The communities that the Central Corridor passes through between the Grand Valley and Glenwood Canyon have long been shaped by the boom-and-bust cycles of fossil fuel extraction, their economic fortunes rising and falling along with the viability of the energy sources buried underneath them 鈥 first coal, then oil, and now natural gas, extracted from a subterranean formation known as the Piceance Basin.
鈥淲e鈥檙e an oil and gas county,鈥 Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said in an interview. 鈥淲e have some of the largest natural gas reserves in the United States, and we do a lot of work to protect those revenues.鈥
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, the far-right congresswoman who has made 鈥渄rill, baby, drill鈥 a signature agenda item alongside her denial of the 2020 election and Christian fundamentalism, calls Garfield County home, having run her gun-themed Shooters Grill restaurant in Rifle for almost a decade before bursting onto the political scene with a shock victory in the 3rd District Republican primary in 2020.
The Piceance gas boom, which peaked a decade ago, swelled county property-tax revenues and provided many families like the Boeberts with high-paying jobs. But a confluence of factors, topped by a global decline in natural gas prices, has gradually soured the basin鈥檚 outlook. Corporate oil giants like ExxonMobil and Occidental have largely divested from their holdings here, and Garfield County鈥檚 total gas production last year was only slightly more than half of 2013 levels.
It鈥檚 a lesson that鈥檚 been learned over the decades in the Piceance Basin: to sit atop vast reserves of valuable natural resources often isn鈥檛 enough on its own to bring a town or a region prosperity, especially in the wide-open spaces of the West. Whether it鈥檚 a lack of infrastructure, technological limitations, the pressures of global commodity markets or simply bad geological luck, obstacles to resource extraction have a way of cropping up.
And it鈥檚 a lesson that drillers and county governments in eastern Utah鈥檚 Uinta Basin, a hundred miles west, have learned, too.
Although the two basins form a nearly continuous of underground hydrocarbon reservoirs straddling the Colorado-Utah border, producing oil and gas from many of the same layers of prehistoric rock, the Piceance and the Uinta have little to do with each other on the surface. Travel between them is possible only by circuitous highway routes that skirt north or south around the rugged Roan Plateau.
Soon, though, that could change in a big way. The 88-mile , proposed by a partnership between industry and Utah county governments, would establish a direct rail connection between the basin and Garfield County for the first time in nearly a century.
The result would be one of the largest sustained efforts to transport crude oil by rail ever undertaken in the U.S., sending hundreds of fully loaded tanker cars daily along the banks of the Colorado River through Garfield County 鈥 and many residents here aren鈥檛 happy about it.
鈥淣obody wants it,鈥 Caitlin Carey, a Town Council member in New Castle, said in an interview. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a sound decision environmentally, it鈥檚 not a sound decision as far as safety is concerned in our small towns, and it鈥檚 not bringing any revenue to the area. So economically, environmentally and safety-wise, it doesn鈥檛 make any sense for it to come through this area.鈥
Mile 79: Parachute
The rock that burns
Seven miles past the Garfield County line, eastbound trains on the Central Corridor route roll through Parachute, population 1,390. It鈥檚 the county鈥檚 smallest incorporated town, paling in comparison even to Battlement Mesa, an unincorporated retirement community on the other side of the Colorado River.
Together, they make a pair of quiet rural villages that have spread out over the ridges of the river valley 鈥 but within the lifetimes of many of their residents, officials at the highest levels of corporate America and Colorado state government planned for this to be the center of a new metropolis.
The same geological formations that produce natural gas in Garfield County and waxy crude oil in the Uinta Basin hold a much larger deposit of another hydrocarbon resource: oil shale. When subjected to subterranean heat and pressure over millions of years, the components of oil shale break down to form oil and gas, but it can also be mined and, with some difficulty, processed to produce synthetic fuels. Parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming sit atop by far the largest oil shale deposit in the world; the amount of synthetic oil that could be produced from this deposit alone, according to , is more than double the entirety of the world鈥檚 conventional crude oil resources.
Parachute was the epicenter of the most ambitious attempt to unlock the potential of 鈥渢he rock that burns,鈥 launched by Exxon in 1980, after a decade of sky-high oil prices had spurred a nationwide search for alternative energy sources.
The multibillion-dollar Colony Project envisioned massive oil shale strip mines across Garfield and Rio Blanco counties and synthetic fuel plants that would produce a staggering 15 million barrels per day. Exxon began developing Battlement Mesa to house the project鈥檚 workforce as job-seekers flocked to the Western Slope from all around the country. Local governments prepared for more than 200,000 new residents to move into the narrow valley between Parachute and New Castle by 2010; Exxon鈥檚 own projections suggested it would be as many as 1.5 million people.
It was the most feverish energy boom in Colorado history, and it wasn鈥檛 long before things went bust. Within two years, oil prices began to fall again, and interest in the development of costly new synthetic fuels evaporated. Exxon abruptly pulled the plug on the Colony Project on May 2, 1982, known locally as 鈥.鈥 Thousands lost their jobs overnight, property values plummeted and hundreds of businesses went under in a crash that left its mark on Garfield County for decades.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a blow for the state and also a blow for the country, which needs alternate energy resources,鈥 then-Gov. Dick Lamm, a cantankerous environmentalist who had nonetheless welcomed Exxon鈥檚 investment in Colorado, told The Denver Post shortly after Black Sunday. 鈥淭his is part of the boom-and-bust cycle the West has been experiencing throughout its history.鈥
Utah has seen its own share of abortive attempts to mine oil shale, but lately, drilling interests in the Uinta Basin have set their sights on an ambitious effort to overcome a longstanding obstacle to development of the region鈥檚 conventional crude oil resources.
Although vast reserves were discovered there in 1948, the high degree of paraffin, or wax, in the Uinta Basin鈥檚 crude oil has kept a hard ceiling on its output. Though not as complicated as squeezing synthetic fuels out of oil shale, processing waxy crude comes with a unique set of challenges; because it congeals into a solid at room temperature, conventional pipelines aren鈥檛 an option, and it must be heated to be loaded in and out of tanker trucks and rail cars, or blended into thinner crudes in small enough proportions that it won鈥檛 cause a blockage.
The Seven County Infrastructure Coalition, a public body made up of the Uinta Basin鈥檚 local governments, has worked with industry groups for years to study potential solutions, including a costly that would be able to transport the waxy crude at high temperatures, or a that would partially refine and liquify it within the basin.
鈥淭here鈥檚 only those two-lane highways. How do you get bulk commodities out? You can鈥檛 do it very effectively, you can鈥檛 do it very safely,鈥 Keith Heaton, the SCIC鈥檚 executive director, said at the group鈥檚 monthly meeting in June. 鈥淣ot to criticize the way it鈥檚 been done, but you need transportation.鈥
In 2019, the SCIC settled on an answer: a new railway that would connect the basin to the national rail network, allowing its waxy crude to be shipped to refineries out of state. The SCIC鈥檚 effort, in partnership with private equity firm Drexel Hamilton and the short-line railroad company Rio Grande Pacific, revived a state-led railway plan that was in 2014 over concerns about high costs.
The railway鈥檚 proponents point to extensive research showing that railroads are a safer mode of transport for hazardous materials than trucks. Tanker trucks hauling waxy crude out of the Uinta Basin have been since production began to rise in the region a decade ago.
During a two-year-long environmental review process, the Uinta Basin Railway鈥檚 backers told federal regulators that its construction could nearly quintuple the basin鈥檚 daily oil production to over 440,000 barrels per day 鈥 an output that would put the Uinta Basin on par with northeast Colorado鈥檚 Denver-Julesburg Basin, currently the largest oilfield in the Mountain West.
They estimated that 90% of the additional output 鈥 potentially over 400 tanker cars full of heated waxy crude per day 鈥 would be shipped by train on the Union Pacific鈥檚 eastbound route through western and central Colorado, before taking one of several routes out of the Denver metro area to refineries in Texas, Oklahoma or Louisiana.
In December 2021, the federal Surface Transportation Board voted 4-1 to approve the new railway. Conservation groups and Colorado鈥檚 Eagle County have sued the STB over the decision, calling the board鈥檚 environmental review 鈥渇atally flawed,鈥 and state leaders have asked at least to bring a halt the project. But so far, President Joe Biden鈥檚 administration has shown no signs of hitting the brakes.
The railway partnership鈥檚 announcement earlier this year that it would seek $2 billion in tax-exempt , which must be approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation, opened a new front in Colorado leaders鈥 battle to stop the project. The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups suing to overturn the STB鈥檚 approval, estimates that the bonds鈥 lower financing costs would amount to an $80 million annual federal subsidy to the interests behind the railway.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat and former petroleum geologist, has long been an ally of Colorado oil and gas producers, embittering many in his own party who accused him of throughout his time as governor, which overlapped with unprecedented boom times for drillers in the Piceance and Denver-Julesburg basins. Though he鈥檚 hardly been an outspoken opponent of the project itself, Hickenlooper in March joined other Colorado Democrats in objecting to the railway鈥檚 plans to seek financing through PABs.
鈥淲hile we support boosting domestic energy production for the benefit of American consumers and our allies abroad, private-sector investments should be based on consumer demand where they pertain to mature technologies with existing, robust markets,鈥 Hickenlooper and his colleagues wrote in a to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 鈥淭here is no precedent for using PABs to fund a rail project solely to transport crude oil.鈥
Mile 86: Rulison
鈥楢 scenic trip to a refinery in Louisiana鈥
The signs for Rulison, seven miles east of Parachute, direct passersby to a sparse patchwork of small farms and pastures at the foot of the Grand Mesa to the south.
It was at a spot hidden high on one of these hills where, in August 1969, men in hard hats carefully lowered a long, thin canister down a hole drilled a mile and a half deep into the Earth, penetrating a thick underground rock layer that kept a large reserve of natural gas trapped further below.
A few weeks later, crews triggered the device inside the canister: a 40-kiloton nuclear bomb.
The blast from 鈥溾 toppled chimneys and cracked foundations in Rifle and Parachute, and shook the ground as far away as Golden. It was one of the ever in which the federal government, in partnership with the oil and gas industry, tried fracking with nukes. The method was soon abandoned, because 鈥 surprise, surprise 鈥 the gas produced as a result of the explosions proved too radioactive to be marketable.
These days, the thing most likely to rattle windows in the Colorado River Valley is freight traffic on the railroad, which passes directly through almost all of Garfield County鈥檚 towns 鈥 small communities of a few thousand people each, where tracks were laid almost a century and a half ago, along main streets and town squares. In many places, trains pass just yards away from homes and businesses, often at high speeds.
Even when the fracking isn鈥檛 being done with nuclear bombs, the fossil fuel economy brings with it benefits and risks 鈥 and rarely, if ever, are they evenly distributed. In the case of the Uinta Basin oil trains, many of the risks of increased production would be shouldered by communities in this valley, while almost all of the benefits would accrue to producers, mineral owners and county governments a hundred miles away in Utah.
鈥淭his train is not bringing anything to this area,鈥 Carey said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not taking crude from Garfield County, or Mesa County, or Moffat County. It鈥檚 taking Utah crude on a scenic trip to a refinery in Louisiana.鈥
But the oil and gas industry wields power here, and the jobs and flush bank accounts that the gas boom provided remain an important part of the county鈥檚 economy and self-image. And in a country where local politics have become increasingly nationalized, small-town safety concerns aren鈥檛 the only thing being debated.
Though Boebert has been an outspoken critic of the Biden administration over the February chemical spill caused by a , she has remained silent on a proposal that could drastically increase the amount of hazardous materials shipped by rail through the heart of her district. A Boebert spokesperson declined to comment on the record regarding her position on the Uinta Basin Railway.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had citizens鈥 comments and so forth, but we haven鈥檛 spent time on it, and I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 our business to spend time on it,鈥 Jankovsky said. 鈥淚t seems like people are making a big deal out of something that鈥檚 not such a big deal.鈥
This is a high-speed train coming through with a payload that is toxic in some situations, and deadly in others. That shouldn鈥檛 be something that is politicized.鈥 Caitlin Carey, a New Castle Town Council member
In March, Garfield鈥檚 Board of County Commissioners brushed aside concerns about the oil trains. Commissioner Mike Samson faulted local opponents for 鈥渇ear-mongering鈥 and railed against what he called the 鈥渄isaster鈥 of the Biden administration鈥檚 energy policy. The response stunned New Castle residents and officials who鈥檇 come to the commission with their concerns.
鈥淲e have the most residents in close proximity to the rail line,鈥 Carey said.
鈥淭he problem isn鈥檛 oil and gas altogether,鈥 she added. 鈥淭he problem is that this is a high-speed train coming through with a payload that is toxic in some situations, and deadly in others. That shouldn鈥檛 be something that is politicized.鈥
Awaiting the 鈥榠ron horse鈥
Though its gold-rush days are the stuff of legend, it was the silver boom that followed that did more to make Colorado what it is today.
During the 1880s, settlements promising the next silver bonanza sprang up all over the mountains, especially after the Ute people were dispossessed of their lands on the Western Slope. With each new boomtown 鈥 Leadville, Aspen, Silverton, Ouray, Creede 鈥 Colorado railroad companies raced to be the first to connect them with the outside world. Backed by enterprising local mine owners or Eastern financiers, competing railroads warred over trackage rights and frantically added new branches and spurs to their 鈥渕ainline鈥 systems, grading out the canyon trails and mountain passes that would become permanent features of the state鈥檚 transportation infrastructure.
After completing its narrow-gauge line through Grand Junction to Salt Lake City in 1883, the Denver & Rio Grande Railway Company battled the newly founded Colorado Midland Railway to build the first route into the Roaring Fork Valley鈥檚 booming Aspen mining district. While the Midland struggled with a more direct route over the mountains from Leadville, the Denver & Rio Grande turned north, laying the first-ever tracks along the old burro trails of the central Colorado River Valley, then turned south again at Glenwood Springs to follow the course of the Roaring Fork.
When the Denver & Rio Grande reached Aspen three months ahead of its rival, the official celebrations lasted a week. Six hundred rail workers were treated to a giant barbecue, and the , on Nov. 1, 1887, carried Gov. Alva Adams and U.S. Sen. Henry Teller as passengers, among other dignitaries.
鈥淥ur mines have been practically idle, waiting the coming of the iron horse,鈥 Aspen Mayor Herbert Harding said in a welcoming address. 鈥淲e are now entering upon an era of prosperity that will be unprecedented in our history.鈥 (In fact, within six years the silver boom would be over for good, brought to an end by the Panic of 1893 and repeal of federal silver-coinage policies.)
But the railroads were more than just highways for heavy industry, and even for towns that weren鈥檛 founded on mining, the arrival of the iron horse was a signal event. A month before tracklayers from the Denver & Rio Grande reached Aspen, their arrival in the resort community of Glenwood Springs was , a parade and a lavish banquet at the Hotel Glenwood. It was the same a few years later in New Castle, Rifle and other small settlements in the Colorado River Valley, as a subsidiary of the Denver & Rio Grande laid track to connect its Aspen Branch to Grand Junction, completing the right-of-way that trains still travel today between the state line and the east end of Glenwood Canyon.
Even in the golden age of railroading, passenger service was a loss leader for most railroad companies, subsidized by the more lucrative business of hauling freight, said Paul Hammond, director of the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden.
鈥淏y the late 19th century, freight traffic is what鈥檚 making the money,鈥 Hammond said. 鈥淧assenger travel is something that is offered as a public good, and as a marketing awareness tool.鈥
But especially in parts of western Colorado where road and highway networks were slow to develop, railroads became a vital service connecting towns across rugged terrain, and stayed that way for generations.
In 1914, trains on the Denver & Rio Grande made between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs. From Main Street in New Castle, a passenger could step onto a train and step off a short while later onto the Main Street of every town that still exists in the valley today, and many that don鈥檛: Akin, Morris, Lacy, Ives, Chacra. For most of the first half of the 20th century, there were two local Denver & Rio Grande passenger trains each way daily.
鈥淵ou could go down (to Glenwood Springs) in the morning and come back in the evening,鈥 an old-timer told journalist Conrad Schrader in 1996. The Denver & Rio Grande鈥檚 long-haul California Zephyr began operations in 1949, and continued as the country鈥檚 last independent intercity passenger line until 1983.
After merging with the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1980s, the Denver & Rio Grande was acquired by the Union Pacific in 1996. But affection for the 鈥淎ction Road鈥 lives on at the Colorado Railroad Museum, which houses some of its iconic locomotives and rolling stock, and in a dedicated community of local 鈥渞ailfans鈥 who help keep its history alive.
Carl Smith, a third-generation railroader whose father and grandfather worked on the Denver & Rio Grande, is no railfan 鈥 鈥淚 like trains on payday,鈥 he said 鈥 but he鈥檚 seen first-hand the effects of rail industry consolidation in Colorado.
鈥淭he local supervisors, managers, officials, they had connections to the community,鈥 said Smith, the Colorado legislative director for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers, or SMART. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 just turned into this large beast, and nobody even knows who the person to call is in case of emergency.鈥
Mile 96: Rifle
Boebert country
In Rifle, 15 miles east on the interstate from Parachute, more than 200 businesses went under in the 18 months after Exxon pulled the plug on the Colony Project. By the time the Piceance Basin鈥檚 gas boom began to revive the region鈥檚 economy in the mid-2000s, the politics of oil and gas had been irrevocably changed.
In 1988, NASA physicist James Hansen to Congress that a growing body of evidence corroborated what some scientists had theorized as early as the 19th century: The Earth鈥檚 climate was being dangerously warmed by human activity, mostly through the combustion of fossil fuels. By 2007, the fourth in a series of commissioned by a United Nations panel called the evidence for global warming 鈥渦nequivocal鈥 and human activity the 鈥渧ery likely鈥 cause.
A generation earlier, it hadn鈥檛 been inconceivable for Lamm and others in America鈥檚 nascent environmentalist movement to offer qualified support for Exxon鈥檚 oil-shale gambit and its promise of a more efficient, more abundant source of energy for the nation. But the planetary scale of the threat posed by climate change, and the urgency of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has made a transition away from fossil fuels the top priority for environmental activists around the world.
In Colorado, alarm over climate change has grown over the course of a two-decade 鈥渕egadrought鈥 more severe than any dry spell the Southwest , putting stress on water supplies and greatly increasing wildfire risk. All of the 20 largest wildfires in Colorado history have occurred since 2001, and the three largest on record burned a combined 540,000 acres during a long, destructive .
At the same time, oil and gas production exploded in Colorado thanks to advances in drilling technology; statewide increased tenfold between 2000 and 2019, while more than doubled. Throughout the 2010s, state officials struggled to keep the peace between outraged anti-fracking activists and the industry鈥檚 emboldened political allies. Though Gov. Jared Polis for an end to 鈥渢he oil and gas wars鈥 when he signed a law strengthening health and safety protections in 2019, tensions between activists and drillers remain high.
Few politicians have championed Colorado鈥檚 oil and gas industry more aggressively than Boebert, a far-right activist who unseated former U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton with an upset victory in the 3rd District Republican primary in 2020.
Boebert herself once worked for a pipeline company, and her husband, Jayson, from whom she recently , is a 20-year veteran of Garfield County鈥檚 natural gas industry. He collected in consulting fees from gas driller Terra Energy Partners in 2019 and 2020. Boebert鈥檚 former restaurant, the gun-themed Shooters Grill, opened in downtown Rifle in 2013, on the same block where so many businesses had closed their doors in Black Sunday鈥檚 wake 鈥 a symbol of both the town鈥檚 economic recovery and its increasingly conservative political bent.
In Congress, Boebert has been one of the Biden administration鈥檚 most outspoken critics on energy policy. The first bill she introduced in the House of Representatives sought to force the country鈥檚 withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change, and she made headlines last year when she attended the State of the Union wearing a shawl
鈥淭hese radicals have no regard for jobs, our economy or responsible energy production and will mount a full-court press to force their socialist agenda down our throats,鈥 she wrote shortly after Biden鈥檚 election. That鈥檚 an attitude shared by many residents and local officials in oil- and gas-producing regions in Colorado and Utah, even if it鈥檚 not always expressed in such confrontational terms.
鈥淓astern Utah has always relied on the energy sector as the pillar of our economy, and it鈥檚 been very good to us,鈥 Heaton, the director of the SCIC, said in June. 鈥(That鈥檚) being taken away. We all know that 鈥 and it鈥檚 not a market decision, it鈥檚 not a decision we鈥檙e making. They鈥檙e being dictated by government policy at a higher level.鈥
Boebert has been especially critical of environmental activists鈥 successful efforts to , a proposal to build a 234-mile natural-gas pipeline and export terminal in Coos Bay, Oregon. The project was championed by Piceance Basin gas drillers who sought to open up new markets for their product overseas, but it was denied key permits by Oregon state officials who cited concerns over its climate and water-quality impacts.
Despite her record of opposition to environmental and safety regulations, however, Boebert has joined other Republicans in harshly criticizing the Biden administration over railroad accidents like the February derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials in East Palestine. In April, Boebert that Buttigieg 鈥渃an鈥檛 seem to fix the near-constant train derailments in our country,鈥 and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for covering the incident after 鈥渢he mainstream media has given up discussing鈥 it.
Along with other right-wing commentators, Carlson spoke of the East Palestine derailment in dark, conspiracist terms, Biden of intentionally neglecting an area in rural Ohio that is 鈥渙verwhelmingly white and politically conservative.鈥 The Anti-Defamation League in the wake of the derailment that white-supremacist groups were 鈥渃o-opting the tragedy 鈥 to advance their claims that the political system is in place to disadvantage and overlook white people.鈥
But even amid her persistent criticism of Biden over East Palestine, and even as other members of Colorado鈥檚 congressional delegation have lodged repeated protests with the Biden administration over the Uinta Basin Railway, Boebert has declined to comment publicly on the project to date.
An estimated 550 million gallons of various hazardous materials were shipped by rail through Mesa County, directly to Garfield County鈥檚 southwest, in 2021, according to officials there. Based on that figure, the crude oil shipped through Colorado from the Uinta Basin Railway would cause as much as a tenfold increase in the volume of hazardous materials traveling through Boebert鈥檚 district.
Local officials in Garfield County say they鈥檝e reached out to Boebert鈥檚 office to no avail. Some say the congresswoman鈥檚 silence is as much as they can realistically hope for.
鈥淚f a position of neutrality, or no position, is the best we鈥檙e going to get, I don鈥檛 know that that鈥檚 a poor outcome,鈥 said Jonathan Godes, a City Council member and former mayor of Glenwood Springs.
Mile 110: New Castle
鈥楪od and the railroad鈥
Today, the only time many people in Garfield County think about the railroad is when something goes terribly wrong.
One such day came in November in New Castle, 14 miles east of Rifle, when 47-year-old Lisa Detweiler was struck and killed by a passing freight train near a grade crossing at Kamm Avenue, just south of Main Street. Detweiler was a of the Garfield County library system, and her loss was deeply felt in this town of just under 5,000 residents.
鈥淪he was my son鈥檚 favorite librarian. A lot of the kids had a hard time with it,鈥 said Carey, the New Castle council member. 鈥淚t was devastating for our town, it was devastating for our library community. It has been an eye-opener.鈥
Union Pacific referred questions about the incident to the New Castle Police Department. But a spokesperson for that department said the investigation into Detweiler鈥檚 death was handled by Union Pacific Police Department, a private law-enforcement agency that 鈥渉as primary jurisdiction over crimes committed against the railroad,鈥 according to Union Pacific鈥檚 website. Union Pacific did not respond to follow-up questions about their investigation.
Even if not a single drop of Uinta Basin oil ever spills in Colorado, such a large increase in freight traffic 鈥 as many as five fully loaded eastbound trains per day, with five empty trains returning 鈥 worries residents in towns like New Castle, where trains pass at high speeds just a few yards from a playground, an elementary school and the backyards of dozens of homes.
With support from the Garfield County commissioners, New Castle has petitioned Union Pacific to require lower train speeds through town. But communities here have grown accustomed to making such requests of the Omaha-based corporate giant, only to be ignored or dismissed.
In response to an inquiry about the speed-reduction request, a Union Pacific spokesperson wrote simply, 鈥淲e abide by the Federal Railroad Administration鈥檚 speed limits.鈥
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the difference between God and the railroad?鈥 Godes asked. 鈥淕od might answer your prayers.鈥
As recently as 1980, the Denver & Rio Grande was one of 40 so-called operating in the U.S., but a wave of deregulation and consolidation has reduced that number to just seven. Just two companies, Union Pacific and BNSF, control virtually all major freight routes west of the Mississippi River, and many towns along those routes say community relations have deteriorated as railroads face investor pressure to cut costs and maximize profits.
鈥淲hen we have some kind of project, whether it be a stormwater project or something that possibly could impact their operations, it is incredibly time-consuming and difficult to even get somebody to respond to you,鈥 Godes said.
鈥淭hey are so insular, because of the legal protections that we have granted them over the centuries, that they just don鈥檛 have to care about anything,鈥 he added. 鈥淎nd so they don鈥檛.鈥
What鈥檚 the difference between God and the railroad? God might answer your prayers.鈥 Jonathan Godes, Glenwood Springs City Council member
Amtrak, which took over the operation of the California Zephyr passenger line in 1983, still serves Glenwood Springs鈥 historic train station once each way daily 鈥 its only stop between Grand Junction and Granby. Beginning in 2021, the Rocky Mountaineer, a Vancouver-based luxury passenger line operating a scenic three-day rail trip between Denver and Moab, also makes several stops in Glenwood Springs each week.
But for most towns in the Colorado River Valley, the railroad tracks that once did so much to connect communities to each other, and to the outside world, are now little more than a nuisance at best, and a deadly hazard at worst.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e not stopping in New Castle. We don鈥檛 have a depot anymore. Silt doesn鈥檛 have one, Rifle doesn鈥檛 have one,鈥 said Carey. 鈥淚f (the railroad) was moving people, if it was creating opportunity for transit in the area, that would be a really different conversation.鈥
State Sen. Perry Will, a New Castle Republican, is among the only GOP elected officials at the state level to voice opposition to the Uinta Basin Railway, joining other Western Slope lawmakers in writing to federal officials in March to express their 鈥済rave鈥 concerns. Will did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
鈥淲e strongly urge you and your partners in the federal government to conduct a more thorough risk analysis in light of recent events and our pressing concerns regarding water supply and wildfire,鈥 the lawmakers wrote to Buttigieg and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. 鈥淲hile we understand and support the desire to increase domestic energy supply, the potential negative impacts of this project far outweigh any economic benefit.鈥
New Castle, like so many other Western Slope communities, started as a boomtown. The soft bituminous coal mined from the mountainsides nearby was prized as a fuel for silver smelters 鈥 and steam locomotives.
But it鈥檚 a town that knows better than most the long-term risks of such frenzied heavy-industrial activity. A series of rocked New Castle鈥檚 coal mining industry in the 1890s, and more than a dozen underground fires in the area have been smoldering for over a century now. Investigators said that one such blaze caused the that destroyed 30 homes in New Castle, and from others still occasionally send columns of smoke into the skies overhead.
Bronwyn Rittner, a New Castle resident who lives just across from where the Union Pacific tracks run along Main Street, spoke of the Uinta Basin Railway鈥檚 risks at a Town Council meeting in May.
鈥淲e won鈥檛 see any funds, our community won鈥檛 benefit at all. It鈥檚 not like the oil and gas industry we have,鈥 Rittner said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very literally a case of action that benefits the few, with steep costs for the many.鈥
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