Impact
At the time I began my research, Solano County's rail plan included two problematic stations -- 1) a proposed station near Travis Air Force Base and 2) a proposed station in a protected marsh -- and a third proposed station in Dixon that was fine.
I got some of my information from attending local planning meetings of the Association of Bay Area Governments. Citations I had from their site no longer work and I'm not readily finding an updated replacement.
The station near Travis AFB has already been built. It had its grand opening in April 2018. It has the potential to help encourage the federal government to close Travis AFB, something they've made noise about for many years, starting well before I lived there and did research related to the rail plan.
The proposed station near Benicia is slated to be built in a marsh. Historically, that section of the rail line was built to cater to people interested in seeing or hunting birds native to the marsh and was built on unstable ground on the edge of the marsh.
The proposed station near Benicia is slated to be built in a marsh. Historically, that section of the rail line was built to cater to people interested in seeing or hunting birds native to the marsh and was built on unstable ground on the edge of the marsh.
The rails used to sink and become covered with water, requiring expensive maintenance to raise them up out of the water and make them usable again. Solano County now wishes to build a rail station in the marsh which is highly likely to also sink.
The upfront cost to build this station is already expected to be more than the cost of the other two proposed stations combined, without factoring in future maintenance costs of a station likely to continuously and slowly sink, much like Venice or New Orleans. Additionally, the marsh is a protected wetlands.
The upfront cost to build this station is already expected to be more than the cost of the other two proposed stations combined, without factoring in future maintenance costs of a station likely to continuously and slowly sink, much like Venice or New Orleans. Additionally, the marsh is a protected wetlands.
Therefore, little or no further development should really be expected near the station. In short, the proposed station near Benicia is not only extremely costly but also likely to have little pay-off in terms of promoting ridership.
If additional development follows due to the existence of the station, it will compound the environmental problems this station is guaranteed to create.
The marsh is a protected wetlands and is critical habitat for a number of species, particularly migratory birds traveling very long distances because Suisun Marsh is part of the Pacific Flyway, a migratory route spanning the length of two continents. Additionally, marshes clean contaminated water before it goes on to other bodies of water, such as the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
The marsh is a protected wetlands and is critical habitat for a number of species, particularly migratory birds traveling very long distances because Suisun Marsh is part of the Pacific Flyway, a migratory route spanning the length of two continents. Additionally, marshes clean contaminated water before it goes on to other bodies of water, such as the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
Additional research that grows out of this project suggests that since the 1700s, we have lost the majority of our wetlands globally. We have lost more wetlands than forests and wetlands store more carbon than forests.
From Work:
Because of my ongoing efforts to do research related to the Solano Rail project, I later tripped across information that I found shocking as someone who was an environmental studies major more than twenty years ago:The world is promoting tree planting to "save the planet" from global warming and it gets argued about because we know it's not enough. Quick and dirty calculations suggest that -- over time -- unlike schemes to plant more trees, restoring our lost wetlands has the potential to start walking back those figures and really calm things down (IF supported with appropriate interim measures).
- Since the 1700s, the continental US has lost more than half of its total acreage of wetlands. The world has lost more than 85 percent.
- Peatlands cover just 3 percent of the planet’s surface but they store about 30 percent of all land-based carbon, or twice as much as all of the world’s forests combined while taking up far less space. Coastal wetlands remove atmospheric CO2 up to fifty-five times faster than rain forests.
So I am wondering why this isn't getting more press and I'm currently developing some information resources related to wetlands restoration, basic water infrastructure and related topics.
It seems likely this substantially contributes to human caused global warming which we blame largely on industrialization and loss of forests. We should be vigorously protecting our remaining wetlands and actively working to restore them, not destroying more of them for a rail station that has bad idea written all over it in flashing neon lights.
Building a station in the marsh would cause a loss of critical habitat and a loss of local ability for nature to process pollutants. The loss of protected marshland here will have impacts which reach far beyond Solano County and should concern environmentalists anywhere and everywhere, not just locals who live in Solano County.
Building a station in the marsh would cause a loss of critical habitat and a loss of local ability for nature to process pollutants. The loss of protected marshland here will have impacts which reach far beyond Solano County and should concern environmentalists anywhere and everywhere, not just locals who live in Solano County.