(NCMonline.com posted the following story by Gilbert Estrada on July 15.)
LOS ANGELES — Last month, Southeast Los Angeles was violently reminded of the dangers involved in moving railroad cargo through dense community neighborhoods: by the destruction of homes and dreams. On Friday June 21, a runaway train with 31 cars was purposely derailed in Commerce; tons of lumber and train chassis ruptured through children s bedrooms and busy kitchens.
Thirteen people were injured in the derailment.
But despite the willful derailment of runaway cargo which reached speeds of more than 80 mph, residents whose homes are adjacent to the tracks and nearby Union Pacific Rail Yard insist the most recent railroad accident is only an incremental danger in a string of hazards which plague public health daily, and unlike the derailment, have fatal consequences.
For decades Commerce, East Los Angeles, and Montebello residents who live near tracks have complained about air quality issues, hazardous spills, excessive noise levels, and other railroad safety concerns. The areas around the railroad are more than 85 percent Latino and low to lower-middle income, including recent immigrants as well as people who have lived in the area for 40 years.
Less than five years ago, Commerce residents who live adjacent to the Union Pacific Rail Yard were flooded with diesel fuel when storage containers, which are kept near homes, sprang a leak and saturated a row of houses and gardens.
“The diesel spill came through my back yard, all through our neighbor’s homes, and actually went through a home and (they) had to replace rugs,” said Commerce Resident Bob Eula, who has been at the same residence for 57 years.
Similar first-hand accounts detail Union Pacific clean up crews costumed in white hazardous material outfits cleaning up the contaminated soil and removing portions in plastic bags.
“The Contamination killed all my flowers and they said (Union Pacific officials) they were going to replace them, but they never replaced them,” continued Eula.
Most notable in Eula’s testimony was the lack of outside agencies involved in the clean up of the highly toxic diesel fuel. Other victims of this spill, and other site contaminations, concur that agencies outside the Union Pacific are rarely seen.
The Union Pacific claims otherwise.
“Yes, we notify the proper agencies,” said John Bromley, director of public affairs for Union Pacific’s West Coast Operations.
Bromley also listed six agencies the Union Pacific contracts with in case of emergency, beginning with local 911 emergency services which must deal with any hazardous spills. Currently, five percent of all cargo that enters the yard is labeled hazardous materials, according to Mr. Bromley.
The Union Pacific also provides a toll-free number to report hazardous materials releases, derailments, environmental incidents, and illegal dumping, according to the Union Pacific.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District, AQMD, the Los Angeles Metropolitan agency responsible for air quality issues and whose toll-free line answers phone calls from citizens reporting polluting facilities, site contaminations, and chemical odors in the air, acknowledged their emergency response units do not actively seek polluters. According to AQMD s hazardous materials division they only respond to complaints of hazardous spills.
“We don’t usually respond unless we re asked. (We) will have the authority to go into the train yard if people call and it is regarded as an air quality issue, ” said an AQMD official. Unless six people call in to report a hazard, AQMD will not investigate an immediate incident.
The Union Pacific Yard is an immense 250-acre facility running diesel-fueled locomotives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Citizens have expressed their anxieties about poor air quality.
“We’re concerned about it,” said Angelo Logan, Director of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, who has taken on the task of regulating the Union Pacific to improve public health. “None of the agencies or none of the city governments were doing anything. ”
Logan’s main concern is idling trains, noting that locomotives sit idling for days only feet from rows of homes. “We know that exposure to diesel exhaust causes negative health impacts, the closer you are to the source, the more at risk you are,” sighed Logan.
Diesel exhaust is listed as a known carcinogen under California’s Proposition 65, and in 1998, the California Air Resources Board listed diesel as a toxic air contaminant. When diesel fuel, or soot from diesel emissions, mixes with ground soil, contamination frequently takes place.
Ray Del Rio, an Astor Avenue resident, has seen dozens of his neighbors diagnosed with cancer, including his father-in-law who passed away last year. Residents have come to regard the area as a “cancer cluster.”
Health problems are compounded by excessive noise during normal operations or when chassis are dragged on the ground. One resident, who wished to remain anonymous summed it up best when he said, the noise is horrendous when they move the equipment.
When stadium lighting was installed about a year and a half ago, residents health was further strained by the barrage of bright lights flooding their homes, causing scores of cases of sleep deprivation, according to local residents.
Railroad yards are largely exempt from federal regulations, allowing them to engage in unprecedented hazardous practices in train yards in spite of documented problems.
Cargo in the area is expected to increase by 62 percent with the completion of the Alameda Corridor East and a 30-mile $245 million dollar third track running from Commerce to Colton. But community and civic organizations are demanding that safety and public health concerns precede interstate cargo.
In a recent statement released by the City of Montebello, Mayor Kathy Salazar vowed not to allow the movement of goods to override the safety of families and if we have to, we ll file a lawsuit on environmental justice issues.