South Coast Rail Project

The comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Report (DEIS/R) for
the South Coast Rail project ended on May 27, 2011. The purpose of this project is to provide public
transportation between Fall River/New Bedford and Boston. In this document, MassDOT identified
the “Stoughton corridor” as the “preferred alternative.” The Stoughton route would reconstruct
the abandoned rail line through the Hockomock Swamp, the largest freshwater wetland in the
Commonwealth and through the Pine Swamp in Raynham.

TRWA and Mass Audubon submitted comments to the Army Corps of Engineers and the
Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office (MEPA) on the DEIS/R. Both organizations
cited the significant impacts to the Hockomock Swamp and other resources that were predicted
in the document. These impacts include: alteration of nearly 12 acres of wetlands, diversion
of ½ mile of a perennial stream, loss of 32 acres of habitat for rare species resulting in impacts
to 9 state-listed species and alteration of 1.77 acres of vernal pool. TRWA and Mass Audubon
noted that the DEIS/R failed to provide specific detailed mitigation plans that would replace
lost functions and values of ecosystems that would be impacted by construction of the Stoughton
route and requested the preparation of the Supplemental EIS/R to supply this information. They
also asked for additional information about the impacts to wildlife, especially rare species that
would result from fragmentation of large blocks of existing habitat.

Read TRWA’s comment letter.
Read Mass Audubon’s comment letter.

The Army Corps and MEPA are now reviewing the public comments. Check in with this website for
further updates.

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