December 13, 2007
New Idea for Caliente Railroad

Photo by Dave Maxwell Jan Cole, presenting annexatin idea to Caliente City Council

By Dave Maxwell

An interesting idea was offered at the regular meeting of the Caliente City Council December 6, regarding the proposed DOE nuclear waste rail line coming through Caliente.

Local realtor and Caliente Hot Springs Motel owner, Jan Cole, suggested that the city consider annexing into the city, land along the existing rail line four miles east to the Eccles siding.

Annexing land for the city was something attorney John Brown said the City had been considering, but the idea of going out to the siding was a new one.

Cole, a realtor and land assessor for over 30 years, said she is not opposed to Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste repository, but is opposed to the rail line coming into, and using, the City as a staging ground for train shipments. Cole put a flyer in the November 29 issue of the Lincoln County RECORD that showed the mile-wide “radiological region of influence” from the trains, that DOE clearly admits to, would effect the entire city of Caliente. And even if radiation leakage is at the minimum, the perception of it to perspective real estate buyers in the area, she said, will be detrimental. If the Eccles site were used, the region of influence would be four miles out of town.

She also mentioned to Council members, that if the DOE does bring the rail line into town, “in the draft EIS, it does mention in four or five places that the construction in town would most likely put the springs out of business.”

In talking with Mayor Kevin Phillips about having the train come into the city, the main benefit she said he told her would be taxes that would be paid by the DOE to the city.

Cole said that it was her understanding that in the early planning by the DOE for the rail line, the Eccles site for a staging ground was the one that would most likely be selected, because that would cause the least amount of impact to the population. However, now DOE favors coming into Caliente and enlarging the old rail yard for a staging area. Cole said she thought DOE would eventually see Eccles as being the best site because it is a larger area than the confines of downtown Caliente.

She said DOE officials have told her they have not done very much in the way of an engineering study as to what it would take to build the rail line in Lincoln County, they have focused mostly on the environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Bringing the rail line into Caliente, along the old line that parallels U.S. Highway 93, would cross over a geothermal area, known to be somewhat unstable. She pointed out that within the past week a large sinkhole opened up not far from the Hot Springs, with steam coming from it.

Annexation by going out to Eccles siding would get payments from the DOE equal to taxes and would still locate the staging site within the city limits.

Cole said under the Recreational and Public Land Use Act, the city has the ability to acquire, at no cost, 6400 acres of BLM land that adjoins the city limits—if it is designated to be for recreational purposes or public uses. She proposed the city consider taking land in 10 township sections, one past where Eccles is located, on both sides of Clover Creek, and down to the north border of Kershaw-Ryan State Park, and designate it for recreational and public use. Any number of things could be defined as public use, she said.

The City does not have to buy the land, so a big reason for annexation, she said, “is that it gives the city ownership and the ability to plan.” She noted that at some time in the future, if the City wanted to sell some of that land in the Park area, they would be able to get a fair market price as is required by the BLM.

Annexing the land for development would present many options, and she is willing to volunteer her time to the City to help them, if they decide to go forward with an idea of annexing the land spoken of.

Cole said she thinks annexation would be a “win-win for both the City and the DOE.” For the City, “it would be less impact to the future of tourism and retirement housing. For the DOE, it’s an opportunity to have a much larger site and not have to worry about the traffic impact in the center of town. (Out at Eccles, any traffic doesn’t end up right in the middle of town.) There would be less concern about having to operate an industrial site in the middle of town,” she said.

“Typically,” she added, “industrial sites are buffers zoning. And the reason for buffer is to keep noise and traffic farther out.”

“The town could see other growth besides this rail project,” Cole said. “The SNWA pipeline and the big transmission line from the Ely Energy Center down to Las Vegas; I think Caliente will be pretty much the hub of all three of these projects because of the rail access.”

The Council took no action on her proposal, but did say they would consider the idea.

In other action, the Council granted a conditional use permit to Richard Alfano for an antique store at #5 North Spring Street, and approved a request from Councilman Tom Acklin to waive the late fee for the utility payments due in the month of December only.