Suit against UP over Long Beach port property dismissed

Suit against UP over Long Beach port property dismissed A false-claims lawsuit filed against Union Pacific by a private citizen over the 1994 sale of nearly 200 acres of brownfield property to the Port of Long Beach has been dismissed by a federal court in California.
   The Omaha-Neb.-based railroad said last week in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the plaintiff in the case had sought $2.4 billion in damages. The plaintiff was not identified in the SEC filing.
   The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California disqualified the plaintiff and dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice on March 7, according to the SEC filing.
   The case involved the 1994 sale of UP tank farm property on Terminal Island to the port. The property was heavily contaminated, according to the port, 'by many years of industrial use, oil production and illegal dumping.'
   Working in conjunction with the state Department of Toxic Substance Control, the port eventually cleaned up more than 180,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil. The remediation project used an innovative method of contaminated soil containment that eventually garnered the port several environmental awards.
   The plaintiff in the case claimed that Union Pacific and other defendants violated false claims laws by conspiring to use public funds to shift environmental-cleanup liability to the Port of Long Beach. The cleanup was eventually paid for by the port, which as a landlord port, derives all of its revenue from tenant leases and fees. The port, administered by the City of Long Beach Harbor Department, does not receive or utilize any direct tax monies.
   Now known as Pier S, the property is being developed as a major container terminal, though no tenant has been officially named. Though the remediation was completed nearly five years ago, the property has sat vacant while the port has searched for a tenant and tried to develop environmental documents for the development.
   A little known fact about the Pier S property: the property sat at the subsidence epicenter in the port, where the port sank as oil was pumped out of the ground beneath it. The Pier S area dropped nearly 30 feet before water injection into oil wells stabilized the subsidence. When the port took over the property, it was actually below sea level, kept from flooding only by dikes surrounding it. The majority of soil removed during the construction of the nearby Alameda Corridor's 'mid-corridor' trench ' 10 miles long, 50 feet wide, and 30 feet deep — was used to raise the Pier S property back above sea level.