Surface Transportation Board February 22, 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

On November 13, 2003, HolRail LLC (HolRail) filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board (the Board or STB) pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 10502 for authority to construct and operate a rail line in Orangeburg and Dorchester counties, South Carolina (SC). The proposed project would involve the construction and operation of approximately two miles of new rail line from the existing cement production factory owned by HolRail's parent company, Holcim (US) Inc. (Holcim), located near Holly Hill in Orangeburg County, to the terminus of an existing rail line of the Norfolk Southern Railway Company (NSR), located to the south near Giant in Dorchester County. Based on consultations conducted to date, the Board's Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) determined that the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is appropriate. To help determine the scope of the EIS, and as required by the Board's regulations at 49 CFR 1105.10(a)(2), SEA published in the Federal Register on July 29, 2005, the Notice of Intent to Prepare an EIS; Notice of Initiation of the Scoping Process; Notice of Availability of Draft Scope of Study for the EIS and Request for Comments. The scoping comment period originally concluded on August 31, 2005, but due to an inadvertent omission in the scoping notice mailed to Federal, state and local agencies, SEA accepted comments from any interested agency through October 28, 2005. After review and consideration of all comments received, this notice sets forth the Final Scope of Study for the EIS. The Final Scope of Study reflects changes to the Draft Scope of Study as a result of the comments, and summarizes and addresses the principal environmental concerns raised by the comments.