Doc and Merle Watson, a father/son bluegrass duo from North Carolina, covered an Elizabeth Cotton song called Freight Train Blues.  In some ways, this song should be the anthem of the Los Angeles region because we are definitely suffering from the freight train blues.  Railyards emit high levels of air pollution from the large diesel engines powering the trucks and trains that visit these yards.  Ample scientific evidence has linked diesel pollution to asthma, other respiratory diseases, and even premature death (see Chapter 1 of Driving on Fumes, a December 2007 NRDC report).  As a major hub for the movement of freight, railyards are scattered in communities throughout the Los Angeles region (e.g. Commerce, Mira Loma, and Carson).

A prime example of the harm caused by one of these rail operations is a railyard in Carson operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), the largest railroad in the nation. UP’s Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) is situated close to residences and schools.  Essentially, trucks pick up containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and haul them about four miles to this railyard where these containers are placed on locomotives destined for places like Chicago.  The ICTF ranks as the fourth most polluting railyard in all of California.  CARB determined that the ICTF and the traffic generated from the railyard impact approximately 600,000 residents at elevated cancer risk (more than ten in one million).  The impacts do not fall below 10 in a million until a person is 5 miles upwind or 8 miles downwind of the ICTF.  As such, the ICTF has an immense footprint of impacts as it transfers tennis shoes and other products produced in Asia to places throughout the nation.   

More than a month ago, a coalition of community, health, environmental justice, and other groups requested that UP clean up its act at the ICTF.  Specifically, these groups made many recommendations for ways that the UP could reduce the harmful air pollution from the ICTF such as using cleaner locomotives, aiding the ports in pushing the cleanest available trucks on the road, and electrifying its operations. The coalition simply asks that UP be a better neighbor.  Tonight, the UP is going to provide its clean up plan for this facility to a Joint Powers Authority—a governmental oversight committee—so many will be watching to see whether UP will agree to be this better neighbor or continue its polluting ways.  We are hopeful UP will take this first step at easing the region’s freight train blues.