Southern California air regulators have adopted an unprecedented rule to curb smog pollution from freight trains and freight trucks serving the region’s rail stations.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District’s governing board voted 12-0 Friday to require rail yard owners and operators, including BNSF Railroad and Union Pacific Railroad, to aggressively reduce lung-irritating nitrogen between 2027 and 2050. Oxide emissions.
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The region’s rail yards emit nearly 22 tons of nitrogen oxides per day, accounting for about 9 percent of all smog pollution in the region.
This new rule applies to approximately 25 rail yards in the greater Los Angeles area and will help curb regional rail yard pollution by approximately 80% by 2036. 300 premature deaths and 2,100 hospitalizations.
“While no single rule or regulation can alone achieve federal air quality standards, today’s passage is a big step in the right direction,” said Vanessa Delgado, chairwoman of the Air District Management Board. explain. “There are many communities, parks and schools surrounded and impacted by rail yard-related pollution sources that will directly benefit from today’s action. We will continue to reduce emissions where we can because our communities deserve it of.
Ahead of the vote, dozens of community members and environmental advocates expressed their support for the rule, with many wearing shirts that read “My Heart Is in Your Hands,” alluding to the cardiovascular effects associated with breathing air pollution. . Many hope the rule will mark a new beginning for communities near the rail corridor.
“This is about correcting a historical injustice,” said Samuel Brown-Vasquez, who spoke at Friday’s public hearing. “I live in Avocado Heights and our community has been devastated by the creation of the rail yards and the impact it has had.”
The regulations are aimed at cleaning up some of the most stubborn sources of pollution in Southern California’s busy freight transportation sector, particularly diesel-powered trains.
Train emissions, which account for about 70 percent of all rail yard pollution, have remained essentially unchanged over the past decade, in part because the rail industry has not purchased new locomotives with cleaner engines, according to the air district.
The aviation district’s new rules are expected to work in conjunction with state Air Resources Board rules governing locomotives and trucks. But air district officials say the new rules are necessary because previous state truck rules were less effective at reducing pollution in Southern California than in other parts of the state.
The Rail Yard Rule will ensure that emissions reductions at Southern California rail yards comply with state rules.
However, the new emissions reductions will only take effect if the EPA signs off on the region’s smog plan and approves state regulations for locomotive and truck fleets.
Air district governing board member and San Bernardino County Supervisor Kurt Hagerman expressed concerns about the feasibility of achieving these emissions reductions and considering the necessary improvements to the grid and electric infrastructure to accommodate cleaner rail yards. .
Wayne Nastri, the air district’s executive officer, said a recent historic $500 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could help. He also pointed out that if railway stations encounter delays or difficulties, fines can be waived flexibly.
“There’s been a huge effort at the state level to make sure we have enough energy capacity to meet the growing demand,” Nasri said. “But the challenge that’s been identified recently is more about the final facility connections, making sure facilities have substations. , circuits, transformers and the time it takes to deal with these issues.”
In Southern California, at least three agencies regulate air quality: the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates facilities; the California Air Resources Board, which regulates cars and trucks in the state; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees trains, planes and ships.
Because some of Southern California’s biggest polluters are subject to federal regulation, local air districts try to work around their own restrictions by requiring facilities to offset pollution. The first-of-its-kind rule adopted by the air zone in 2021 sets out requirements for large warehouses to mitigate pollution from the truck traffic they attract.
The rail yard rule is the second such policy for the air district.
Although the rule does not apply to rail yards at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the air district is drafting a similar proposal to reduce emissions from the port complex, the largest stationary source of smog-forming pollution in the region.
