Cliff Mass, western Washington weather guru, has written a blog post citing new research that found significant amounts of coal dust as well as diesel emissions from coal trains moving through Seattle.
"Coal trains clearly degrade air quality," Mass concludes in this blog post.
Mass reports on recent research that measured particulates in the air near the railroad tracks in Seattle's Blue Ridge neighborhood.
The crowd-funded project was conducted by University of Washington-Bothell Professor Dan Jaffe and several UW students, Mass writes.
His blog post contains graphs that display a significant spike in particulates in the air, from both diesel exhaust and larger particles believed to be coal dust, when trains pass.