California's New Rail Line - Ruining Lives and Businesses at High Speed

Just how out of control are state and federal environmental laws?  Here you go:

The California High Speed Rail Authority is considering a new route for its cross-state system that will literally split farms in two, to avoid a bird sanctuary.

Mike Monteiro, owner of the Lakeside Dairy in Hanford, which is just about three miles down the road from the sanctuary, said he learned of the plan only through a concerned neighbor who warned that draft rail routes would split his land apart.

“It’s amazing to me that they’ve moved this rail across this farmland without any input from me or any of my neighbors on the impact that it’s going to have on my dairy,” said Monteiro, who owns 7,000 cattle on his thousand-acre farm. He’s certain that his business will be dramatically affected. ...

Earlier projected maps showed two different alignments going through the Tulare Lake Bed, a wetlands-like region that attracts 200 species of birds, including waterfowl, gulls and shorebirds. Parts of the 1,300-acre region, maintained by the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District (KDWCD), Corcoran Irrigation District and Central Valley Flood Protection Board provide a habitat for the birds and are recommended for protection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

When the conservation district heard about the proposed route, it informed the rail authority that such a move would significantly affect the area used by thousands of birds.

“If you’re interrupting that site, you’re impacting that particular species at stake,” said Sopac Mulholland, executive director of Sequoia Riverlands Trust, a conservation group that works in the region.

But farmers say they weren’t offered an opportunity to suggest a new rail route if their homes were affected.

“You’re saying that the species that are protected in that preserve are more important than us? And our property line can’t be sidestepped for us, but can for certain species that are deemed worthy but we're not?” said Anne Gaspar, another Hanford resident whose property is in the path of the railway.

The rail authority says they have a thorough environmental review process in which they must follow strict state and federal requirements.

We've already turned millions of acres of the most fertile farmland in the world into a dustbowl in order to protect a 3" bait fish, and now this stupid high speed rail line, that will probably never do more than connect a few cities in Central California that nobody wants to go to at any speed, is going to further damage the economy of the area. It's absurd.