(The following story by David Danelski and Laurie Lucas appeared on The Press-Enterprise website on April 24.)
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — Thousands of people living near a busy San Bernardino railroad switching yard and cargo hub face a greater risk of developing cancer because of diesel pollution from locomotives and other equipment, a state study has found.
The BNSF rail yard in southwest San Bernardino exposes nearby residents to a much greater cancer risk than other rail facilities in Southern California, according to a California Air Resources Board analysis.
“We thought Commerce would be the highest, and then we saw San Bernardino and it kind of stunned us,” said Harold Holmes, an engineering section manager with the agency.
The maximum cancer risk near the San Bernardino rail yard is 2,030 cases per million residents, which the state’s analysis noted is in addition to the risk — 1,000 cases per million people — from other air pollution.
Rachel Lopez, an Inland environmentalist and a Mira Loma resident, traveled to Oakland to petition the Air Resources Board to make changes.
The state needs to take strong action now, she told board members at their meeting Thursday. “We have waited years with a blanket of toxic diesel pollution from rail yards over us.”
A BNSF official said the company already has taken steps to cut pollution at all rail operations in California.
“It is much cleaner now, but there is more work to do, and we are doing it,” spokeswoman Lena Kent said.
The maximum risk to residents in San Bernardino — 13 times higher than a Union Pacific yard in Colton and four times higher than a UP facility in Compton — was a result of the large number of trains traveling to and from the Cajon Pass that pass through the BNSF yard; the large volume of locomotives, trucks and cargo-moving equipment in close proximity; and a higher-than-expected stream of goods containers, Holmes said. The yard handled 550,000 containers in 2005, he said.
The cargo-handling equipment, 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.
State officials will host a May 8 meeting in San Bernardino to explain the report and hear from residents. The input will be considered as the Air Resources Board draws up a plan in the next few months to cut the rail yard pollution, Holmes said.
Risk Zone
The BNSF yard is next to densely populated neighborhoods and a park. About 3,780 people living in closest proximity face an increased cancer risk of 500 cases per million or worse, according to the report, which was based on information from 2005.
The highest cancer risk was estimated to be along the yard’s north fence, along West Fourth Street.
Teresa Lopez, who lives across the street from the fence, said the rail yard has grown immensely in the past decades, including big expansion in the late 1990s that made it a cargo transfer hub where large cranes constantly lift containers and move them back and forth between trains and trucks.
“We knew it was bad, but we didn’t think it was this bad,” Lopez said after learning of the cancer risks.
Ana Miller, 32, and her mother, Blanca Miller, 54, never use their back porch, 50 feet from the rail yard.
In fact, Ana Miller’s daughters, Kiana, 10, and Jasalyn, 7, play on a swing set in the front yard on Terrace Street. Both girls depend on nebulizer treatments to ease the asthma they have developed in the past few years.
The Millers say they’re choked by sand blowing from a nearby cement-mixing plant and diesel fumes wafting from the trucks in the freight yard. Ana Miller points to a withered shrub and deformed lemons on a tree behind their house.
“They don’t grow,” she said. She thinks the pollution has killed much of the vegetation.
Blanca Miller has an appointment next month to check a lump in her breast. She also suffers from asthma, which she said affects her ability to work more than part-time in a clothing store.
She would like to move. When they bought the house seven years ago for $99,000, she said, they had no idea the rail yards would be a health hazard.
Lopez, 54, said she doesn’t want to move from her 100-year-old house, despite her doctor’s advice to get away from the rail yard. She just wants the railroad to be a better neighbor.
“I want them to do what they say they’ll do. Switch over to cleaner fuel,” she said.
The railroad that is polluting her neighborhood also is her husband’s livelihood. Nicholas Lopez, 56, is a flagman for the BNSF.
“We have tons of friends working for the railroad,” Teresa Lopez said. “Some don’t have a clue what’s going on. They just say that California has bad air.”
Is she worried about cancer? “I get tested,” she said. “I take care of myself.”
Making Improvements
Kent, the BNSF spokeswoman, said the risk needs to be put in perspective. It is based on exposure over a 70-year lifespan and on pollution levels outdoors.
Since 2005, when the pollution data was collected for the state analysis, BNSF and Union Pacific have cut rail yard pollution in California by 20 percent by voluntarily reducing locomotive idling times and deploying their newest, cleanest locomotives to California.
Kent said the railroads are following through on other strategies required in a 2005 agreement with the state, such as repairing locomotives that emit excessive smoke and using cleaner fuel.
Kent, in a telephone interview, said new state or local regulations would slow pollution cuts and create an impractical patchwork of rules for the interstate railroad companies.
But air board Chairwoman Mary Nichols said during Thursday’s meeting that the agency needs to explore various options to reduce pollution from rail, including possible new state regulations.
“When you look at the health risk assessments,” she said, “you can’t say it is an acceptable amount of exposure.”