Liz Talley moved into her North Beach home in 2009. The house sits on a bluff, so she can see into the train cars that pass below.
Talley didn’t give the trains much thought until about a year ago, when she began to notice some of the cars contained coal. The grayish-black mounds were left uncovered, open to the elements.
When Talley researched open bed coal, what she found alarmed her. Shipping coal in open-bed trains creates toxic coal dust, which can cause asthma and respiratory problems. But because coal is highly combustible, covering it is difficult and risky. ...