(The following story by David Danelski appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on October 1.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Railroad representatives and state air pollution officials vowed Wednesday night to strengthen a diesel-pollution cleanup plan for California’s most problematic rail yard, but the assurances did little to mollify a crowd of about 100 people who sometimes shouted in anger.
The California Air Resources Board held the meeting at City Hall to hear suggestions on how to cut pollution from the BNSF Railway yard, which a study determined presents the highest known cancer risk to residents of any rail facility in the state.
Harold Holmes, an air board manager overseeing rail-yard cleanup, said the plan is still evolving.
The plan calls for using low-pollution locomotives to assemble cars into trains; spending $7 million to build new truck check-in stations to reduce idling near homes; and possibly relocating a truck driveway to put it farther from houses. In addition, state and federal regulations requiring cleaner trucks and locomotives will kick in over the next 10 years.
Some residents were skeptical.
Simon Washburn, who lives east of the rail yard in southwestern San Bernardino, held up an article from the BNSF Web site describing state-of-the-art technology to be used at a rail yard in Long Beach.
“Can’t we bring that technology here first, before you start expanding in other places?” he asked.
Another resident, Carolyn Zazueta, who lives next to the rail yard, said the pollution has made her ill, aggravating allergies and causing skin rashes and other problems.
“The technology is here now, and you’re not doing it,” she said.
The audience broke into applause in response.
Mark Stehly, a BNSF environmental and research development official, said it’s not a simple matter to transfer the technology to San Bernardino.
The company will do everything that’s feasible to cut the diesel emissions in San Bernardino, he said.
Holmes said the state is undertaking a two-month study to determine the cost and practicality of various measures to clean up the air at the yard.
A state study released earlier this year estimated the cancer risk attributed to the yard at 2,500 cases per million people. That is 2.5 times worse than the state’s second-worst rail yard, in Commerce.
It is 25 times and 17 times worse, respectively, than the Union Pacific yards in Mira Loma and Colton, according to state reports.
The yard handles as many as 550,000 shipping containers in a year, transferring them from trucks to trains or vice versa, and funneling them to other parts of the country.