HELP is a not-for-profit 501(c)4 organization founded in 2008 to protect the water, air and land of Hillsdale watershed and the surrounding region from pollution.


Our founding was prompted by BNSF's plan to place an 1100-acre international rail-trucking hub less than a mile from houses and schools in a highly sensitive area of the Hillsdale watershed and in the direction of prevailing winds blowing across Johnson County and the KC metro area.  Five cities and two-thirds of rural Miami County depend on Hillsdale Lake for their drinking water, while the roads proposed to service the project would be impacted by diesel emissions from increased truck traffic. 


With these multiple significant impacts involving a broad region, a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) and a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) are needed for BNSF's intermodal project.  The environmental assessment BNSF submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers for their 404-permit application is not adequate for determining the impact their facility would have on the region.  HELP will exert every legal means to be sure that the people and environment are given due consideration through a full EIS and HRA.  For more explanation of these studies listen to NRDC staff attorney  Melissa Lin-Perrella on Environmental Reviews.   


Melissa was one of seven experts in air quality, water quality and environmental justice who convened last summer for an Intermodal Impacts Conference hosted by the Sierra Club, HELP and THE Impact Project.  View the full conference for understanding the full impacts an international rail yard and trucking distribution hub located in Johnson County would bring to our lives, our resources and our economy.  (The conference is available on DVD.) 
Hillsdale Environmental Loss Prevention
Air Filter of an Intermodal
Air Monitor After 24 Hours
Hillsdale Reservoir
From the Intermodal Impacts Conference

Up the I-710 to the BNSF Hobart Yard, Commerce, CA
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Trucks on residential streets in Commerce
Soccer Kids on a Field
Next to Intermodal Cranes
Aerial of two intermdal rail yards in Commerce
An Intermodal Yard