BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (CN) - The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District illegally approved a rail terminal expansion that will transport 61 million barrels of volatile crude oil a year without environmental review, environmentalists claim in court.
Communities for a Better Environment, the Sierra Club, ForestEthics, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Association of Irritated Residents sued the air pollution control district on Jan. 30 in Kern County Court.
Bakersfield Crude Terminal LLC, Plains Marketing LP, Plains LPG Services LP, and parent company Plains All American Pipeline LP are name as real parties in interest.
"The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's role is to protect the residents of the San Joaquin Valley from harmful air pollution. Instead, the San Joaquin Valley bent over backwards to fast-track the Bakersfield Crude Terminal without environmental review or pollution controls," plaintiffs' attorney Elizabeth Forsyth, with Earthjustice, told Courthouse News.
Three of the plaintiffs filed a similar lawsuit against Kern County in October 2013, claiming the Board of Supervisors illegally approved Alon U.S.A. Energy's massive oil refinery project.
Though the two projects are not related, "the operation of another crude oil terminal will only exacerbate the risk of catastrophic derailment to those who live near the rail line and will only worsen the air quality in an area already overburdened with industrial pollution," Forsyth said.
The Bakersfield Crude Terminal, in Taft, is one of the largest crude terminals in the state. At capacity, it will "receive two one-hundred-car 'unit' trains of crude oil per day, carrying as much as 61 million barrels a year," the environmental groups say in their complaint.
Taft, pop. 9,327, is 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley.
"The crude slated to arrive at the Bakersfield Crude Terminal alone represents a 1,000 percent increase over the total amount imported by rail into California in 2013, substantially increasing the risk that California will experience accidents and derailments with catastrophic human and environmental consequences," the complaint states.
In light of "frenzied effort[s]" to transport large quantities of cheap crude from North Dakota and Canada to California, project leaders for the Bakersfield Crude Terminal persuaded the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to approve an oily water sewer system for the terminal without environmental review or pollution controls, so the project could be set up "ASAP," the groups say.
They claim the district's failure to perform environmental analysis and its approval of several permits for the sewer system without public notice violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the Clean Air Act.
Rail transport of crude threatens the public health by increasing ground level ozone and particulate matter pollution, which exacerbate respiratory conditions such as asthma and can cause inflammation in the lining of the lungs, the groups say.
Kern County's abysmal air quality is one of the worst in the nation, and causes approximately 1,500 premature deaths each year, according to the complaint. One in six children in the San Joaquin Valley will develop asthma as a result of exposure to toxic air pollution, and health problems associated with breathing the area's bad air rack up $3 billion to $6 billion in annual health costs, the complaint adds.