[B]URLINGTON — A federal judge has ruled Shelburne can’t enforce a town ordinance that likely would have shut down Vermont Railway’s operation that takes road salt from trains and loads it onto trucks for distribution around Vermont.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions issued an order last week that permanently blocks enforcement. The ordinance would have allowed Shelburne to levy daily fines for road salt storage violations, issue “health orders” directing the railroad to remove the road salt, and limit the amount of fuel and other commodities the railroad can store temporarily.
The order is likely to end a two-year legal battle between Shelburne and Vermont Railway as well as its partner in the enterprise, Barrett Trucking. The companies had worked to develop the project to replace a salt “transloading” operation in Burlington that had closed. Town officials and residents opposed to the project failed in several attempts to thwart it.
Shelburne spent $451,000 on attorneys in the matter since January 2016, according to Town Manager Joe Colangelo. The town’s legal budget for that period was $92,000.
“I respect members of the Shelburne Selectboard for staying true to their values in the face of adversity. The passions and commitment to civic life from a cross-section of the community makes Shelburne a unique and special place,” Colangelo said in a statement.
Colangelo deferred questions about whether Shelburne would continue to fight the road salt operation to members of the Selectboard. Chairman Gary von Stange, who supported the ordinance, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Meanwhile, Vermont Railway applauded the order. “We’re pleased with the ruling, and the sheds are full and ready to serve Vermont this winter,” said Selden Houghton, an assistant vice president with the rail company.
Salt for the facility is mined in western New York by the agricultural and industrial products giant Cargill and shipped by rail to depots similar to the one in Shelburne. From there it is loaded onto trucks for use by the state, municipalities and commercial snow removal services.
In his order, Sessions wrote that federal regulations governing railroads pre-empt Shelburne’s ordinance, and the constraints the ordinance would place on the road salt operation outweighed the “inconclusive and overstated public health and safety concerns” town officials had raised.
The judge also found the ordinance, passed in August and amended in October, to be discriminatory, because it appears to target the Vermont Railway operation. The town exempted salt sheds with a capacity up to 550 tons, allowing its own salt storage facility to continue operating. There are no other salt storage facilities in Shelburne.
Sessions also found the timing of the ordinance to be suspect: “While it may be true that the Town has considered regulating hazardous materials generally in the past, the timing of the Storage Ordinance’s enactment in the context of the present case is indicative of a desire to specifically target the Railway’s facility.”
