July 8, 2005
An air quality agreement between the California Air Resources Board and
two major railroads should be rejected because it will frustrate efforts
across the state to further reduce locomotive emissions, according to the
Governing Board of the Southland’s clean air agency.
“CARB’s agreement, reached in secret without input from the public or
other air quality agencies, does not adequately protect public health and
will undermine a host of ongoing efforts to reduce locomotive emissions in
the Southland and across California,” said William A. Burke, Governing Board
Chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Today -- following a public hearing and testimony by numerous elected
officials, community representatives and others -- the AQMD Board formally
requested the CARB Board to hold a public hearing on the agreement and
forego implementation of the agreement. The Board further directed staff to
continue current legislative and rulemaking efforts to reduce locomotive
emissions in the four-county area.
On June 24, CARB announced a memorandum of understanding with Union
Pacific Railroad Co. and BNSF Railway Co., the two major railroads serving
the state. Although the agreement purports to reduce railroad emissions in
several ways, including an idling reduction program, the use of low-sulfur
diesel and cancer risk assessments for major rail yards, the measures are
generally vague, weak and less stringent than what could have been achieved
through state legislation or local regulations.
“This is a major retreat from current efforts to regulate one of the
dirtiest mobile sources in the state,” Burke said. “What’s worse, it
contains a “poison pill” that casts a dark pall on good-faith efforts to
adopt similar or more stringent measures as those contained in CARB’s
agreement.”
The “poison pill” is a clause in the agreement that allows the railroads
to unilaterally abandon their commitments to emission reductions across the
entire state if any government agency – federal, state, regional or city –
attempts to enforce any requirement addressing the same goals as those in
the agreement, such as locomotive idling reduction.
CARB asserts that the memorandum of understanding was necessary because
state and local agencies are pre-empted from regulating locomotives.
However, AQMD legal analysis indicates that most of the measures in the
agreement could have been adopted as regulations, without the termination
clause. Ongoing efforts to reduce railroad emissions that could trigger the
termination clause include several state legislative proposals, four
proposed AQMD rules and portions of the Port of Los Angeles’ No Net Increase
plan.
Specific shortcomings of the agreement include:
- A visible-emissions measure that represents a major step backwards
from historic AQMD enforcement of smoking trains. For example, the
railroads agreed to pay AQMD $5,000 for failure to repair a smoking
train. Under the CARB agreement, they would pay only $400-$1,200;
- A measure prohibiting idling beyond 60 minutes, but exempting
“essential” idling, which is broadly defined;
- A provision that requires most of the diesel fuel pumped into
locomotives in the state have a low sulfur content, but does not prevent
locomotives from potentially filling up with higher-sulfur fuel out of
state before they enter California; and
- A provision promising CARB’s help in seeking public funding for
emission reduction measures, contrary to the general practice of requiring
polluters to pay for their own controls.
Controlling locomotive emissions is crucial to cleaning up Southern
California smog because they are such a major source of air pollution. In
addition to toxic diesel emissions, diesel locomotives in the region emit
about 37 tons per day of smog- and particulate forming nitrogen oxides.
That is more than the combined emissions from the area’s 320 largest
facilities, including all of the oil refineries, power plants and major
manufacturing plants. Compared to autos, businesses and major facilities
such as oil refineries, locomotives and rail yards are still relatively
uncontrolled.
A detailed analysis of AQMD’s concerns regarding the agreement and
related documents can be viewed on AQMD’s website at
www.aqmd.gov.
“This agreement is a bad piece of public policy that will result in
dirtier air for millions of Californians for years to come,” Burke said.
“It should be rejected and replaced with more effective and enforceable
measures.”
In other action, the Board set public hearings for Sept. 9 to:
- Adopt Rule 1401.1 – Requirements for New and Relocated Facilities Near
Schools – to establish more stringent risk requirements for new or
relocated facilities siting near existing schools;
- Adopt Rule 1156 – PM10 Emission Reductions from Cement Manufacturing
Facilities – to require cement manufacturers to reduce particulate matter
emissions from processing equipment, as well as fugitive emissions from
open storage piles and vehicle traffic on paved and unpaved roadways;
- Amend Rule 1118 – Emissions from Refinery Flares. In 1998 AQMD
adopted Rule 1118 requiring the eight refineries and two related
facilities in the four-county area to collect emissions data from their
vent gas flaring operations. Based on a staff report presented to the
AQMD Governing Board in September 2004, AQMD staff was directed to develop
a rule amendment to ensure that emission reductions achieved over recent
years can continue and that further reductions will occur. The amendments
also strengthen reporting and recordkeeping requirements and allow
refineries to operate their flares for their intended purpose -- as a
safety device; and
- Amend Rule 1186.1 – Less-Polluting Sweepers and Rule 1196 – Clean
On-Road Heavy-Duty Public Fleet Vehicles – to extend sunset dates to allow
the purchase of non-rule compliant vehicles when an alternative fuel
refueling station is not within five miles of a vehicle fleet storage
facility. Rule 1186.1 also provides an exemption for fleets that can
demonstrate that an alternative fuel street sweeper is not technically
feasible for a specific use.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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