(The following story by Bob Egelko appeared on the San Francisco Chronicle website on January 13.)
SAN FRANCISCO — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected California’s attempt to bolster rail standards on a curving mountain grade in Siskiyou County that was the site of a destructive toxics spill in 1991.
The justices, without comment, denied review of a lower-court ruling that said the grade was not a local safety hazard. The federal government generally regulates the safety of interstate railroads, but states have authority over local hazards.
The court case arose from a 1991 Southern Pacific derailment near Dunsmuir that sent thousands of gallons of weed killer into the Sacramento River and wiped out fish and plant life for 40 miles. The 10.5-mile Dunsmuir grade includes a 14 percent curve, the sharpest in the state, that has been the site of numerous derailments.
In response, the state Public Utilities Commission passed a series of safety rules in 1997. But nearly all the rules were overturned in lawsuits by railroads, which argued that the state was interfering with exclusive federal authority over their operations.
One rule that survived the initial round of lawsuits was a requirement that Union Pacific, which now runs the rail line, keep tracks on the Dunsmuir grade at their current tensile strength levels, above federal standards, or get PUC approval for any changes.
But that rule was struck down last June by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, whose decision was left intact Monday by the Supreme Court. The appeals court said there was nothing especially local about a steep, curving grade that would authorize state regulation.