Ann Gieger has been speaking out against the Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Southern deal for months, a belief that grew stronger after the Ohio derailment.
PRINCETON, Iowa – As Eastern Palestine, Ohio continues to deal with the aftermath of a toxic derailment, the impact can be faintly felt at home in the Quad Cities as the disaster influences opinions on the impending Canadian Pacific – Kansas City Southern rail merger .
For those opposed to the settlement, like former Princeton, Iowa Alderwoman Ann Gieger, the sentences are tightening.
Gieger has been campaigning against the deal for about a year, and now he’s using the eastern Palestine derailment as another word of warning
Since News 8 first sat down with her in August, several QCA cities, such as Bettendorf and Davenport, have approved deals with Canadian Pacific with deals as high as $10 million.
If the deal goes through, rail traffic across the area would increase significantly, and a further dimension of that problem would be an increase in hazardous material making its way through the area – a factor that has raised suspicions many after the disaster of eastern Palestine.
Gieger’s backyard is fenced off from the train tracks and just feet from the Mississippi River, of paramount importance to both humans and nature.
“The fact that water is involved – a river, there are houses, air quality is the big thing that we don’t hear a lot about, like bloody noses and all sorts of things like that and that could happen here – I don’t with chemicals, but with crude oil. Crude oil will burn you,” he said.
He has been contacting several government officials since last March in an effort to raise awareness of the dangers of transporting large quantities of hazardous material near the river and in residential areas.
Canadian Pacific recently issued a statement on the situation, saying the company is committed to transporting hazardous materials and other goods with utmost safety and that it meets or exceeds all safety regulations and standards.
Still, Gieger is asking this question: Will disaster strike before anything is done?
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