I am writing regarding your editorial: “Our View: LePage administration goes off track on Amtrak layover facility in Brunswick,” Sept. 3.

In it, as in just about every opinion piece on the same subject, the authors cite various “critics” who are “opposed” to the facility. The reality is that the opposition is not to the facility itself, but to the facility’s proposed location; there is a meaningful difference, and you do a disservice to confuse the two.

Gov. LePage’s early interest on the subject raised this very point, suggesting that in addition to the environmental and health concerns for the proposed location, other available locations could provide a significantly greater advantage to economic development.

You also cast the Department of Environmental Protection’s involvement as an impediment to construction at the proposed in-town location. The agency’s role is not to influence where the facility is located, but to ensure that if it is built where proposed, the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority is in full compliance with all relevant environmental law and regulations, just as the Federal Railroad Administration directed they do.

You ignore the reality that the facility could well end up at the proposed location. With the DEP’s assurance of due procedural discipline, at least residents in the area will have the benefit of best practices in all health and environmental aspects of the project.

Are you suggesting a lesser standard should apply? Are you implying that NNEPRA, itself an agency of the state, should be immune from such considerations?

Pem Schaeffer

Brunswick

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