(The following story by Jo Ann Zuniga was published in the January 16 issue of the Houston Chronicle.)
HOUSTON — Hispanics and elected officials said Wednesday they will file a federal lawsuit opposing the proposed San Jacinto Rail Line that would bring increased train traffic and hazardous materials to Houston’s East End.
Rick Dovalina, a League of United Latin American Citizens national board member, said the civil rights group will work with environmentalists in fighting the proposal in court even if it wins federal approval.
Dovalina and U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, were among 250 at Chavez High School, 8501 Howard, in the last public hearing before the federal Surface Transportation Board considers the proposal.
The board is reviewing a draft environmental statement that has tentatively concluded that the line would have negligible impact on neighborhoods.
Green, who plans to introduce legislation that would give greater weight to public opposition to these types of proposals, said he was “extremely disappointed” in that finding.
At a Tuesday night public hearing at the Pasadena Convention Center, about 20 out of the 54 speakers were in favor of the rail line, consortium spokesman Henry de la Garza said Wednesday.
Asked about the possible litigation, he said, “We want to avoid that at all costs.”
George Duggan, vice president of industrial products for Burlington Northern Santa Fe, said at the Wednesday meeting, “We pledge to deliver competition in a responsible manner.”
Duggan said the company plans to get half the rail traffic at Bayport “with aggressive marketing.”
The 13-mile line would run north of the Clear Lake area, near Ellington Field, and connect to existing track that cuts through the heavily Hispanic East End, running near Chavez and Milby high schools and several elementary schools.
City Councilman Carroll Robinson said the city intends “to go to court and make our grounds heard.”
School bus driver Irma Huerta, testifying to the board in Spanish with a translator provided, said any more train traffic will add to already long waiting periods.
A consortium of four Bayport chemical companies and Burlington Northern Santa Fe is asking the federal government to approve the line. It is needed, they say, to break Union Pacific’s shipping monopoly in the Bayport Industrial District. The plants contend they are being gouged by the railroad.
However, Dovalina said, “It’s about two mega-railroad companies fighting for control of this country. If they want to make the prices competitive, they should file an antitrust case.
“These plants have not considered Hispanics. We will file a lawsuit claiming racial discrimination to try to block this rail proposal.”
Environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, chairman of the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association, has said 2000 Census data was distorted in the environmental impact statement to claim the line would be going through largely white neighborhoods.
By law and executive order, all federal agencies must assess whether a proposal’s adverse effects fall disproportionately on minority communities.
According to Blackburn’s census analysis, 71 percent of the people within one-quarter mile of the proposed route are Hispanic and 32 percent are children.
He said 27,825 Hispanics, or 90 percent of the population within one-quarter mile of the route, were counted as white in the data given to the Surface Transportation Board.
Blackburn called the number-crunching “deliberate suppression of the racial implications of a proposal.”