The Medina County Environmental Action Association sought review of a decision by the Surface Transportation Board and the Fish and Wildlife Service allowing a rail line for a limestone quarry in Texas. Environmentalists worried about the endangered golden-cheeked warbler and invertebrates living in karst limestone formations. The transportation board granted Vulcan Construction Materials permission to build a seven-mile rail loop linking the Medina County, Texas, quarry to a Union Pacific rail line along Highway 90. Vulcan looked for warblers starting in 2000, finding a single warbler calling near the site in 2003. It also tracked the presence of karst cave insects. The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded that little suitable warbler habitat remained, since the area had previously been cleared for agriculture. Although some karst features were in the project area, none of the cave insects was discovered there.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the environmental group’s request for review, finding that quarry development would occur regardless of the railway, so the two were not interrelated. The court said Vulcan provided adequate mitigation measures, including a planned buffer zone and a promise to not clear land during warbler breeding season. The court noted that the rail line is better for wildlife than an “environmentally disruptive fleet of trucks.”
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