Environmentalists sue to block massive rail yard in California desert

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (CN) — A group of environmental advocacy groups sued Barstow, California, to invalidate the city’s approval of a massive rail facility in the Mojave Desert northeast of Los Angeles.

The Sierra Club and three other nonprofits filed a writ petition Wednesday in San Bernardino County Superior Court to set aside the city’s approval of the Barstow International Gateway because they say it’s based on a faulty and inadequate analysis of the project’s environmental impact.

“It’s unconscionable that a city in this day and age would allow a giant industrial project that will result in so much increased diesel pollution, which is damaging to people and the environment,” Seth Alston, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “Barstow needs to go back to the drawing board.”

The 4,500-acre facility will be the largest rail yard in the country. BNSF Railway is investing $4 billion to build the hub to streamline inland transportation of the millions of containers with imports from Asia that arrive at the ports of LA and Long Beach each year.

The ports themselves are upgrading their logistics infrastructure to move more containers off their docks by train in order to reduce the congestion and pollution of the thousands of diesel trucks that arrive daily to pick up containers and haul them to distribution warehouses in the area.

The Barstow project, however, is expected to emit more than 550 tons of nitrogen oxide — the pollutant that causes serious health problems — and burn more than 18 million gallons of diesel every year, the environmental organizations say.

The project will also increase greenhouse gas emissions by 134,471 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, a 41% increase over the existing emissions, they say, citing figures based on the purportedly faulty assumptions in the city’s environmental impact report.

“This massive rail facility will spew diesel fumes from the San Pedro Bay Ports to the High Desert of Barstow 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, adding to the dirty air that communities have been forced to breathe for decades,” Yasmine Agelidis, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in the statement.

The nonprofits argue the city didn’t adequately analyze the project’s effect on the Mojave fringe-toed lizard, Mojave desert tortoise, western burrowing owl and other special status wildlife and plants. They further claim the city failed to thoroughly analyze the energy, water, noise, cumulative impacts and growth-inducing impacts associated with its approval.

In its June 17 announcement of the City Council’s approval of the project, Barstow said BNSF had committed to zero-emission rail-mounted gantry cranes, hybrid rubber-tired gantry cranes, zero-emission forklifts and hostlers, and electric plug-ins for refrigerated units, as well as a solar farm.

“This approval represents years of thoughtful planning, environmental review, public outreach, and coordination,” City Manager Rochelle Clayton said last month. “The BIG Project is more than a development project; it is a long-term investment in the future of our community. The city remains committed to ensuring this project moves forward responsibly, with continued focus on public services, community impacts, and sustainable growth.”

Representatives of the city didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

The nonprofits claim the city’s approval of the project violated the California Environmental Quality Act, and they seek a court order vacating its approval.

The organizations are represented by attorneys from Earthjustice, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity.

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