(The following article by Mark Grossi was posted on the Fresno Bee’s website on August 7.)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The door is open for negotiations to trim 7 tons of daily air pollution from locomotives in the murky San Joaquin Valley, but it could be a rough ride.
Officials from major railroads on Wednesday told state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, they would be willing to talk about speeding up the process of running cleaner diesel locomotives in the Valley, which has the third worst-polluted air in the country.
Florez, who has introduced eight air quality measures for the Valley this year, convened a Sacramento field hearing on the topic, which caught his interest when he learned railroads agreed in 1998 to buy cleaner locomotives for the South Coast Air Basin.
On Wednesday, rail officials from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co. and Union Pacific Railroad Co. warned Florez that the Valley is quite different from South Coast. They said it would be very difficult to establish a separate group of locomotives for the Valley.
“The South Coast is an origin-destination type of place,” said Mark Stehly, assistant vice president from Burlington Northern. “The San Joaquin is a flow corridor. It has fewer stops and few places to switch. It’s just not the same situation.”
Locomotives produce about 28 tons of smog-making pollutants per day in the Valley, state estimates show. That amounts to more than 3% of such pollutants daily.
The benefits from new locomotives would be considerable, said Mark Boese, deputy air pollution control officer for the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District. He said the seven-ton savings would be the equivalent of eight new rules being considered for other sources in the Valley.
But the local district does not have control over rail pollution. The district has authority over stationary sources such as power plants while state and federal agencies regulate engines and fuels for rail.
Boese said the local district long ago cleaned up the most obvious pollution problems in stationary sources.
“We like to say that we’ve taken all the low-hanging fruit,” he said. “But today you might find an apple still hanging low.”
Rail officials argued trains are more than twice as fuel efficient as trucks, thus saving on pollution that might be produced if trucks were used instead.
Michael Iden of Union Pacific said his company has embraced new air regulations with 1,600 cleaner locomotives, amounting to 21% of its fleet. He said a new diesel-battery hybrid is being evaluated.
Stehly of Burlington Northern added that his company will invest $45 million in 30 new locomotives in the next few years as part of the South Coast agreement.
But rail companies didn’t go far enough in their agreement with South Coast, according to Frances Keeler, deputy counsel with the South Coast Air Quality Management District. She said there is no way to enforce the agreement, which was struck with the state Air Resources Board, not South Coast.
“It is not enforceable by [the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] or by citizen lawsuits,” Keeler said. “The public was cut out of the process.”
Florez asked rail officials whether they would include the San Joaquin air district in negotiations.
“A lot depends on the attitudes,” Stehly said. “Are we going to eventually get a ‘yes,’ or are we going to be in a situation where we’re never quite doing enough? I would like them to be at the table.”