CARB, BNSF promise cuts in San Berdo rail yard pollution
State air regulators and Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials promised Wednesday to reduce diesel pollution at the railroad's massive San Bernardino rail yard, identified by state officials as the most polluting rail facility in California.
The meeting, called by the California Air Resources Board, drew more than 100 members of the public who at times expressed frustration and anger at the presentation, according to the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
The rail yard clean-up plan calls for BNSF to switch to low-emission switching locomotives, upgrade the facility's truck gates to reduce truck idling times at the facility, and the possible relocation of the facility's truck entrance away from nearby homes.
According to the paper, local residents blasted BNSF for proposing to develop a new rail yard with high-tech emissions controls and equipment near the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, but not proposing to put the same technologies in place at the existing San Bernardino yard.
A BNSF spokesperson at the meeting told the attendees it would not be simple matter to transfer the proposed Long Beach and Los Angeles technology, but the railroad was committed to doing everything feasible to reduce emissions at the San Bernardino yard.
CARB officials said the state is going to conduct a two-month cost and viability study of the various proposed clean-up measures at the rail yard.
A state study released earlier this year found that the San Bernardino yard, which handles more than 500,000 containers a year, puts area residents at greater cancer risk than any other rail facility in the state. Residents living near the BNSF yard face more than twice the cancer risk of residents living near a rail yard in the City of Commerce, which had the second-worst rating in the state, the study said.
CARB, BNSF promise cuts in San Berdo rail yard pollution
