DAVENPORT, Iowa — Molly Newell's business, EnviroNET, sits along Highway 61 in Davenport. It has a waterfront view of the Mississippi River, as well as a front-row seat to a symphony of train horns.
"My co-workers and technicians that work in the front office — they have to have an earbud in their ear in order to keep concentrating, so it's a problem," Newell said.
She said that when she first moved into the building in 2009, the noise wasn't really an issue, but ever since the city raised the tracks several years ago, the sound has become more noticeable.
But now, she's focused on a larger concern that's been growing. A possible merger between two multi-national rail companies: Canadian Pacific Railroad and Kansas City Southern.
Newell said the distance between her office and the train tracks is less than 50 feet. She said she hears the trains go by at least five times a day. But if the merger were to go through, that number is expected to triple.
"They're going to run longer trains [and] they're going to run more frequent trains. The train tracks- their infrastructure here is not made to take that kind of a load. It's just gonna snowball into a horrific situation."
And the Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio causing hazardous materials to spill out only served to help her strengthen her stance against the merger.
"We have concerns," Newell said. "We have concerns about the environment, the safety and health of those people that are injured [and] that had to be evacuated. We have concerns about the first responders [and] we have concerns about the lingering vapors in the air from the vinyl chloride."
She said the risk of a derailment happening near the Quad Cities and anything contaminating the Mississippi River is too great and urges Canadian Pacific to spend the money to re-evaluate its plan.
"Essentially put the tracks somewhere else. I realize it's expensive, but it's a lot less expensive than ruining our environment," Newell said.
In a statement to News 8, a Canadian Pacific Railroad spokesperson said:
"We continually strive to make the transportation of hazardous materials and other goods as safe as possible, meeting or exceeding applicable regulations and industry standards, investing in our network infrastructure, implementing advanced technologies to drive safety and working with our customers to continually improve the safety of their tank cars. CP has led the industry with the lowest train accident frequency rate in North America for 17 straight years, illustrating the effectiveness of our efforts to enhance public safety and protect the environment."
The merger is currently awaiting federal regulatory approval.
The City of Davenport already accepted a $10 Million offer from Canadian Pacific agreeing not to oppose the merger. It will receive the money should the merger go through.
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