Court halts work on POLA-BNSF railyard project amid environmental concerns

An appellate court found that the 5,000-page environmental impact report had inconsistencies regarding air pollutants under California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, and that those inconsistencies need to be reconciled.    California’s First Appellate District Court has brought work on a planned rail project near the Port of Los Angeles to a screeching halt on Friday after ruling that the port and its partner, BNSF Railway, submitted an insufficient Environmental Impact Report (EIR). 
   In a 45-page ruling, the court ordered that work on the project be suspended until inconsistencies in the EIR are addressed, including impacts by ambient air pollution concentrations. 
   The project in question, the Southern California International Gateway, or SCIG, is a planned near-dock rail yard, which would transfer containerized cargo between trucks and railcars about four miles north of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, primarily on land owned by the City of Los Angeles Harbor Dept., as well as on adjacent private land in Los Angeles, Long Beach and Carson.
   The court found that the 5,000-page final EIR had inconsistencies regarding air pollutants under California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, and that those inconsistencies need to be reconciled for work on the project to continue.
   The City of Long Beach, however, claims that the SCIG would adversely affect its residents, businesses and schools by bringing more noise and air pollution to an area that has already suffered plenty over the years due to nearby port-related operations.
   The City of Long Beach filed a lawsuit in 2013, asking the courts to vacate and set aside the project, and litigation has been ongoing ever since, with Long Beach contending that the negative effects of the rail yard project would be borne almost entirely by the residents of West Long Beach.
   Long Beach also contends in the lawsuit that the project doesn’t comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, a statute requiring state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts.
   In addition to the City of Long Beach, plaintiffs in the litigation include the South Coast Air Quality Management District, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, several environmental and legal groups and trucking companies, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
   The Los Angeles City Council gave final approval to the SCIG via an 11-2 vote in May 2013, and the Port of Los Angeles Harbor Commission approved the project two months earlier.
   The SCIG project has also had major support from local labor unions due to the estimated 1,500 direct and indirect jobs per year that BNSF has said the project would create over the years.
   The railway company also says that if built, the SCIG would reduce truck traffic, freeway congestion and air pollution by eliminating about 1.3 million truck trips annually along a 24-mile stretch of the Long Beach (710) Freeway to BNSF’s Hobart Yard near downtown Los Angeles.