Pollution Deal With Railroads Criticized

California officials and the nation’s two largest railroad companies have struck an agreement to reduce pollution from rail yards, but the pact surprised local air quality regulators and environmental activists who called it a backroom deal that would undermine tougher smog controls.

Idling locomotives and other equipment at rail yards are among the largest sources of smog in Southern California, particularly in parts of eastern Los Angeles County and San Bernardino County that have large concentrations of rail lines.

The California Air Resources Board said in announcing the agreement Friday that it negotiated the deal with Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads because it did not feel it had the authority to force the freight lines to make tougher changes. Because railroads cross state lines, the federal government has most of the legal authority to regulate trains.

Local air quality regulators, environmental groups and community leaders, however, said they were surprised and outraged that state officials had cut the deal, which was drawn up without public debate. The agreement provides that, if any one local regulatory agency passes stricter regulations, the railroads can walk away from requirements to clean up rail yards across the state. That effectively kills any efforts to pass stronger rules, local officials said.

The agreement, the critics noted, comes just as California lawmakers are considering far stronger legislation to reduce railroad pollution, and numerous agencies, including the Port of Los Angeles, are weighing measures to clean up rail yards.

“They cut a backroom deal with no input from the affected communities,” said Barry Wallerstein, the executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the main air pollution agency for the Los Angeles region. “That’s not something we would ever do.”

California lawmakers on Monday are set to consider three bills to clamp down on railroad pollution, including a measure by Sen. Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) that would allow the South Coast air district to impose a pollution fee on railroad companies that would generate money to reduce emissions at rail yards, Wallerstein noted.

The air district is also considering regulations to reduce idling at rail yards. That plan could be blocked by the new agreement.

The state agreement might also threaten a much-touted plan by outgoing Mayor James K. Hahn to prevent pollution from growing at the Port of Los Angeles, Wallerstein said.

“It’s outrageous for any public entity to sign an agreement with this kind of poison pill without having a public debate about it,” said Gail Ruderman Feuer, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. Feuer added, however, that she believed that Los Angeles might still be able to force the railroads to reduce pollution without violating the state deal by including tougher provisions in leases at the port.

Under the deal, the railroad companies agreed to stop “all nonessential” idling of locomotives at rail yards.

The companies also agreed to conduct health-risk assessments for all major rail yards and to include community groups in the process. And they agreed to require locomotives fueling up in the state to use low-sulfur diesel fuel six years before they would have been required to do so under federal regulations. The state already requires some locomotives to use the fuel but had chosen not to apply the rule to locomotives that cross state lines.

However, the railroads can opt to avoid all actions by simply paying penalties of roughly $3 million a year.

“All we really agreed to do is accelerate the time frame in which we are going to do” some improvements, said Steven Fosberg, a spokesman for Burlington Northern.

Fosberg said that his company was looking to expand its operations in California as the state’s freight industry continues to flourish, and that it believed quickly reaching a statewide deal to make changes was in its interest.

Noel Park, president of the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, said he suspected the railroads were more interested in quashing public input that might slow down expansion plans than in cutting pollution from rail yards.

Park, who spent weeks working on the Los Angeles port pollution plan with railroad lawyers and state officials, said he never heard a thing about a rail yard deal among the two parties.

“Nobody mentioned a word about this,” Park said. “What is the matter with these people? The idea that you can’t involve the public in decisions because it will slow things down went out with button shoes.”