Pem Schaeffer’s commentary in the April 22 issue of the Times Record directly contradicts Senator Gerzofsky’s stated rationale for requesting an OPEGA (Office of Professional Evaluation and Government Accountability) audit of NNEPRA (Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority), which is seeking a stormwater permit for the Brunswick Layover Facility (BLF). According to Senator Gerzofsky, his request had nothing to do with the BLF. However, as Mr. Schaeffer demonstrates, the audit request serves as a sort of political Petri dish, a vessel in which insinuations, misinformation, and disinformation about the BLF and NNEPRA can incubate and multiply, with the ultimate goal of stalling the project and eventually killing it off.

For the record, NNEPRA is audited annually by the accounting firm MacPage and triennially by the Federal Transit Administration (the last FTA audit took place in 2012; the current one is underway) and posts the results of these audits on its website. NNEPRA also underwent a Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) IPERA review in 2010, a rigorous, months-long process that scrutinized the agency’s financial operations down to the individual purchase order. No NNEPRA review or audit has ever uncovered anything untoward. This is not to say that the rail agency should never be subject to an OPEGA audit, but rather to suggest that NNEPRA’s operations give little cause for concern.

Mr. Schaeffer’s description of the actions taken by the Government Oversight Committee (GOC), which OPEGA serves, is inaccurate. Senator Gerzofsky asked for an immediate, high-priority audit of NNEPRA. Instead, the GOC approved a preliminary review, which means OPEGA will study publicly available sources on NNEPRA’s operations and make a recommendation on whether a full audit, a partial audit, or no audit of NNEPRA should be undertaken. The GOC will then vote on whether to accept or reject OPEGA’s recommendations.

Mr. Schaeffer’s interpretation of NNEPRA’s plans for expansion of passenger rail service to other Maine cities is speculative. It is clear that he has never checked his “facts” with NNEPRA or Ms. Quinn.

NNEPRA is building up the core Boston-Brunswick service so that other feeder passenger rail lines — such as the St. Lawrence & Atlantic or the Maine Eastern Railroad — will have a robust schedule to connect to. A key component of more frequent Downeaster service is the construction of a layover facility in Brunswick, which is in fact the head of the Downeaster line. When the BLF is built, the Downeaster will be able to offer a third round-trip daily between Brunswick and Boston. And when a new siding is built in Yarmouth, there can be five or even six daily round-trips from Brunswick.

There is strong demand for rail service throughout Maine. Look at two bills making their way through this legislative session: L.D. 1174, which proposes “to study the feasibility … of providing passenger rail service to the City of Bangor,” and L.D. 323, “An Act To Provide Funding to the Department of Transportation [DOT] To Complete the Assessment for … the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad Line,” which NNEPRA supported as amended. NNEPRA seeks to collaborate with DOT and Maine cities to bring feeder rail lines into service and connect them to a strengthened Downeaster.

Mr. Schaeffer not only repeats the Bouchard Drive neighbors’ contention that the BLF will not reduce the number of hours that trains spend idling, he takes that claim to a whole new level, asserting that the facility will increase idling time to “perhaps” 30 to 50 hours a day. The brief idling at the BLF as trains begin and end their runs, described in the FRA’s 2014 Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), cannot produce more emissions than the current 5 hours of outdoor idling every day, compounded by two deadhead runs and overnight idling in Portland.

From the FONSI: “The [Environmental] Assessment demonstrates that locomotive emissions will not cause air quality in the vicinity of the Layover Facility to approach EPA established thresholds for National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for the criteria pollutants evaluated (PM10, PM2.5 and NO2). Analysis of both long-term and acute (short-term) health risks associated with carcinogenic and chronic non-carcinogenic toxins was conducted and shows concentrations well below applicable standards. The results show that the overall cancer impacts from all pollutants combined is less than one-in- 19 million, which is well below the applicable EPA Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol significance threshold of one-in-one million.”

Finally, I believe Maine owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Wayne Davis, without whom there would be no Downeaster, and to Patricia Quinn, who has overseen the Downeaster’s dramatic growth in ridership and popularity and remains optimistic about the prospects for passenger rail in Maine despite the past winter’s challenges.

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Emily Boochever lives in Brunswick.