(The following article by Chris Bowman was posted on the Sacramento Bee website on July 8.)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A quietly negotiated pact between California smog regulators and the nation’s two largest railroads is engineered, all sides agree, not only to hasten the cleanup of smoking train yards but also to derail local efforts to pass tougher rules, much to the fury of Southern California smog enforcers and activists.
The critics have three big complaints. They say the deal excluded the public, particularly railyard neighbors; allows railroads to buy their way out of cleanup; and inhibits other agencies from taking stronger action.
The agreement, which took effect last week, requires Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway to “significantly” reduce diesel emissions in and around railyards statewide over the next 10 years.
Locomotives are among the least regulated and most polluting sources of toxic soot and smog in the Sacramento region, particularly in neighborhoods downwind of the busy Union Pacific hub in Roseville, and in the Los Angeles basin.
Air-quality regulators in the Sacramento area said they have no quarrel with the statewide deal, though they were surprised they had not been included in the negotiations.
The accord does not override a local pact that contains many of the same emission-reduction promises for the Roseville yard. It does, however, effectively preclude any effort to adopt more stringent regulations.
Measures in the statewide deal include the elimination of “nonessential” idling, conversion to cleaner-burning diesel fuel six years earlier than federally required and prompt repair of locomotives spewing dark smoke.
Officials with the South Coast Air Quality Management District and advocates for railyard neighbors in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties say the agreement undercuts far stronger emissions restrictions under consideration by the state Legislature and the South Coast air district.
The railroads won a provision that discourages regulatory agencies or state lawmakers from imposing tougher controls.
For example, if a local air district imposed a time limit on locomotive idling that is tighter than that in the state agreement, the railroads could back out of idling reduction programs in every other region of California. “This provision is intended to stymie local government efforts to address community problems,” said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast district.
State air board officials said they believe the South Coast proposals either duplicate rules they’ve already drafted for statewide adoption or invite litigation from the railroads.
In announcing the agreement on June 24, the state air board, known for aggressively regulating the cleanup of automobile engines, said it does not have nearly as much authority over railroads.
Federal law protects railroads, airlines and shipping lines from most state and local intervention on grounds that control by multiple jurisdictions could hobble interstate commerce. The federal Environmental Protection Agen-cy does require cleaner-burning engines in new and rebuilt locomotives. But it will take years to see significant results; locomotive engines last 30 to 40 years.
State air board officials said they believe their nonregulatory approach (a memorandum of understanding, which is akin to a contract) will avoid legal battles and clean up railyard pollution much faster than would occur under federal EPA rules.
“We don’t see how we could have done much better, given that we can’t set our standards for locomotives,” said Michael Scheible, the air board’s deputy executive officer.
For the railroads’ part, officials say the agreement that covers all 36 railyards in California provides the certainty and uniformity needed for efficient transport of goods. “We are really a traveling factory statewide, so to have regulations that apply only within Southern California would make operations impossible,” said Kathryn Blackwell, spokeswoman for Union Pacific.
South Coast air district officials say their proposed measures would not interfere with rail operations. But the railroads would not be able to buy their way out of pollution cleanup, they said.
Under the statewide deal, the railroads can’t be forced to clean up – but only to pay penalties.
For any locomotive idling in excess of the limits in an urban railyard, the state can impose fines up to $400 for the first day of violation, $800 for the second and $1,200 for the third, and for any subsequent day in the same year. Additional penalties up to $40,000 per month apply if a railroad simply fails to implement any one of seven required cleanup measures.
Fourteen environmental and neighborhood groups have petitioned the state smog agency’s governing board to suspend the accord signed by its executive officer, Catherine Witherspoon, until the public and the board members themselves have reviewed it. “It is precisely the pressure from outside sources that could have helped strengthen the MOU (memorandum of understanding) and removed its many loopholes,” the coalition states in its June 30 request.
Barbara Riordan, the board’s interim chairwoman, earlier rejected a similar request by the South Coast air district, noting that the agreement requires ample public participation as part of required health risk studies at the railyards.