At Monday night’s city council meeting, council held a half-hour long discussion on project developments related to the Baltimore-Washington Superconducting Maglev Project. The only consensus reached appeared to be to continue to oppose the project, to continue to attempt to find outside legal help and to hold a worksession in the near future to discuss more details.
Participating in the discussion were Councilmember Judith Davis, who asked that the item be placed on an already lengthy agenda, as well as Councilmembers Emmett Jordan, Rodney Roberts and Leta Mach. Councilmember Edward Putens remained silent and Councilmember Silke Pope was absent.
Even though they expressed a sense of urgency, they couldn’t agree on what to do. Davis started the discussion by saying the maps supplied in the July 20 NHPA Consulting Party Meeting did not adequately show the potential impact to the Forest Preserve. When Mayor Colin Byrd suggested the name of an attorney they could hire, Jordan said, “Hiring a lawyer is a cop-out.” Davis suggested they seek pro bono help from groups like Green Peace, the Sierra Club, the Anacostia Watershed Society or the National Resources Defense Council. It takes a lot of research to understand railroad law, she said. After one more futile attempt to suggest assembling a list of potential attorneys, Byrd quietly said, “A lot of paralysis by analysis.”
When he suggested getting congressional leaders on board, Davis said they’re not interested when federal funding is not involved. Byrd also pointed out that the Prince George’s County Council had not taken a decision as a whole. Jordan said that the maglev would fail for lack of private sector funding – Baltimore-Washington Rapid Rail (BWRR) has made known their intention to apply for a federal loan, estimated to be $10- to $15 billion, to construct the Baltimore to Washington segment. Other councilmembers remained focused on what they perceived to be the ways in which maglev would succeed. Davis cited BWRR nationwide promotion and its power of eminent domain. Mach said it will mitigate individual issues, such as noise. Susan McCutchen, a Bladensburg resident who has been active in watching maglev issues, noted that four chambers of commerce and a number of labor unions have publicly stated their support of the project. Roberts thought meeting with BWRR was a waste of time. “We need to do something,” Davis said. But there was no clear sense what that might be. Byrd closed the discussion by saying he would like to schedule a special meeting with U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer that would accommodate the congressman’s schedule.
Council is on record opposing the project, having sent a letter January 2018 to then Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. Since the maglev project was paused between August 2019 and May 2020 to allow the builder, Northeast Maglev, time to work on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), council had little incentive to tackle the issue. At the August 10 meeting there were many unresolved issues. They were unclear, for instance, about whether Hoyer had the power to prevent the transfer of federal property out of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC).
In lieu of council action, Davis looked to citizen groups such as Beth LeaMond’s newly organized group, which meets next on Tuesday, August 18, and Brian and Donna Almquist’s Greenbelt Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice as well as Citizens Against SCMaglev. Roberts urged the city’s advisory boards and the Green Team to become active. Davis defended the Forest Preserve Advisory Board, when Roberts cited their inactivity on this issue.
“I am concerned that nobody is sufficiently prepared for the mammoth task of reviewing the maglev DEIS. And some very smart and diligent people in the city and other friendly communities have been trying to prepare for this for a long time,” said Greg Simmons, a Greenbelt East resident who had earlier responded to an email request for comment.
“The city has serious budget concerns, and I understand that, but if the council can’t quickly get together to set aside a small amount to get expert review of the DEIS – in the $15,000 to $30,000 range – and find a contractor to do it, it’s going to be up to ordinary citizens to address all the technical matters the maglev project directors will stuff into the DEIS, with possibly as little as 45 days to comment once it’s out,” Simmons said. “That’s like putting up a high school basketball team against the 1992 Bulls. The last time Maryland did a maglev DEIS almost 20 years ago, the DEIS was 800 pages long.”