Politics & Government

Study of Intermodal's Impact on Health Begins

Researchers started by asking what the community thought should be evaluated.

There are some things you can’t put a number on, according to health officials. 

“We recognize things that can’t be quantified,” said Ruth Lindberg, project manager for the National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH), a nonprofit she said aims to "keep people healthy in their homes ... and a healthy home can't exist in a vacuum."

Take traffic, for example.

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While one form of analysis may simply examine numbers, Lindberg said, her organization tries to go beyond the data and figure out what consequences those numbers have on people's lives. For instance, time spent in traffic would impact a person's opportunity to get to the grocery store or the gym, she said.

“What we’re finding is road safety has an impact on whether people will exercise,” said Lindberg, speaking at Jessup's Enviro Center on March 14.

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The meeting was the first in a series of three discussions NCHH is hosting in central Maryland to talk about a proposed freight facility and what it could mean for health.

NCHH was recently to study the potential impacts of the project, called an "intermodal" facility because it facilitates freight exchanges between trains and trucks. Four sites are being considered for the facility, in Anne Arundel, Howard and Prince George’s counties.

CSX and Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT), the cosponsors of the train-truck project, are conducting their own analysis, which is federally mandated under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Their study has 23 categories ranging from wetland to traffic studies, which it is applying to each of the four candidate sites.

“We hope to complement those studies,” said Lindberg.

At the March 14 meeting in Jessup, she asked what the community would like her organization to study.

Of the 10 people who attended, several said they were most concerned about development coupled with traffic. 

“The development, the traffic, everything has already had a negative impact on the citizens around here,” said Linda Miller, who lives in Jessup. “There’s a lot of mental anguish in this area right now. There’s so much happening that we can’t handle any more development but we keep getting it.”

Lindberg said it sounded like residents were asking for the NCHH to make sure the study took into account cumulative effects.

Residents cited  several roads as areas of concern, including US 1, Routes 32, 100 and 175, and MD 295.

“It’s the trucks I’m worried about,” said Andy Lincoln, who lives on Dorsey Run Road.

Lincoln and others said that if CSX and MDOT were planning to close roads such as Dorsey Run, Race, Hanover or Montevideo, the impact needed to be considered.

Lindberg asked whether jobs were a priority for the communities near the candidate sites.

Two people representing commercial interests around Jessup said that the intermodal facility would take jobs and revenue out of the area because it would push out existing commercial properties.

Other issues attendees raised were air quality, the bike trail, stress and anxiety, parklands and property values.

NCHH will hold two other community workshops in the counties where the freight project is being proposed. One workshop is on Monday in Beltsville; will be on Wednesday at the .

By the end of April, NCHH will have outlined what it plans to study. Its research will be complete by September and presented by the end of the year.

Noting that reports and analyses can be extremely technical, Lindberg said NCHH aims to provide information that is "clear and direct," which residents can bring into public hearings as evidence and take to their legislators for reference.

Lindberg said the nonprofit, which has the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene backing it in this project, anticipates transportation officials will consider its results during the process.

“Ideally, what we'd like to see is CSX and MDOT…providing this as evidence to the existing NEPA process and making sure that [health] gets addressed,” said Lindberg.

NCHH would also like to encourage a system that "could be incorporated at state level for decisions around transportation or land use eventually,” said Lindberg.


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