Environmental and health groups have responded to Union Pacific Railroad’s recent lawsuit against Wasco County with their own legal challenge in federal court.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge, Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Columbia Riverkeeper filed a motion in federal court Monday to intervene in opposition to Union Pacific’s Jan. 10 lawsuit over a track extension project in Mosier.
The railroad sought to exempt itself from the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act, striving to push the development forward. UP named the Gorge Commission and Wasco County Commissioners in their complaint.
A coalition of activist groups, which have opposed the Mosier track project, announced at the time that they would challenge UP in court; this week’s filing represents that culmination.
“Friends of the Columbia Gorge and its allies are intervening to stop Union Pacific’s cynical attempt to circumvent federal laws that protect this national scenic treasure, its communities, and tribal treaty rights,” said Michael Lang, Friends’ Conservation Director. “Union Pacific has an appeal pending before the Columbia River Gorge Commission and that is the appropriate place to raise their arguments. It should not get away with trying an end-around the process.”
The Federal Railroad Administration determined Union Pacific was at fault for the oil train derailment and fire in Mosie last June.
The groups’ motion to intervene was filed in the U.S. District Court in Portland.
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