(The following story by David Danelski appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on May 8.)
SAN BERNARDONO, Calif. — State air quality officials acknowledged Thursday that they may have underestimated the cancer risk from a San Bernardino rail yard because they overlooked homes close to the most polluted area.
In a meeting with residents, California Air Resources Board officials said they will have to recalculate the risk to residents after discovering that a mobile home park is within 150 feet of a busy section of the BNSF railroad yard, where trains, semi-trucks and other diesel-powered equipment move hundreds of cargo containers every day.
A report released last month estimated that residents who live near the BNSF yard in south San Bernardino face an increased cancer risk from air pollution — as much as three times higher than the average for the region.
Harold Holmes, engineering and evaluation manager for the air board, said he learned of the mobile home park after he was contacted by resident Teresa Lopez, who lives across the street.
Holmes said he expects to have new cancer risk numbers for the mobile home park within a week or two, he said.
Residents and San Bernardino Mayor Patrick Morris demanded action to reduce pollution from the BNSF yard.
Morris said it is the most polluted rail yard in the state and uses outdate diesel equipment. He wants to see the yard replace diesel equipment and switching locomotives with models that run on electricity.
BNSF is planning to use state-of-the-art equipment at a new cargo facility in Los Angeles, and the same should be done in San Bernardino, he said.
“We have the biggest problem. We want the best equipment,” Morris said. “We are not asking for more. We are asking for the same. The health of our city depends on this.”
Speaking from a wheelchair, Mary Diaz said she has lived across the street from the rail yard for 21 years and suffers from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
“I have been very, very sick,” she said. “There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood. … Something needs to be done now.”
Holmes said several new state and federal regulations and programs would require railroads to limit locomotive idling times, use cleaner fuel and replace cargo equipment with less-polluting models. Those changes are expected to cut rail yard emissions statewide as much as 50 percent by 2010 and 85 percent by 2020, he said.
In addition, the air board and BNSF will look at operational changes that would reduce diesel pollution sooner.
Mike Stanfill, BNSF manager of environmental operations, said the company is looking at ways to change how trucks in the rail yard line up and how long they idle.
The health-risk research estimated that the maximum cancer risk near the San Bernardino rail yard is 2,030 cases per million residents. Inland region residents already face a risk of 1,000 cases per million people from other air pollution.
The maximum risk to residents near the San Bernardino yard is 13 times higher than the risk from a Union Pacific yard in Colton and four times higher than a facility in Compton.
The BNSF yard’s cargo-handling machinery, trucks and various other equipment collectively produced an estimated 11.4 tons of cancer-causing diesel soot during the study year. Locomotives emitted another 10.6 tons, the study found.
The 3,780 people living closest to the yard face an increased cancer risk of 500 cases per million or worse, according to the report, which analyzed information from 2005. The risk estimates are based on a lifetime — 70 years — of exposure.
The health study was required under a 2005 agreement between the air board and the state’s railroad companies. The agreement called for the railroads to voluntarily reduce locomotive pollution.
Luis Enrique Muniz said in an interview after the meeting that he lives in the mobile home park with his 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter.
“We can’t open the windows. The babies can’t play outside, and we can’t go to the park,” he said in Spanish. “The girl has a coughing problem all the time. They should clean up the area and the facility.”