As part of their latest efforts to change their operations for the cleaner, Union Pacific has been going through the process of obtaining an Environmental Impact Report for their plans to expand their Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) in West Long Beach – the idea being that expansion of the facility will alleviate the need for heavy truck usage in the area, which boasts notoriously unhealthy air quality.
“If done correctly, we can go ahead and reduce pollution by about 70%,” said Zoe Richmond, a Union Pacific spokesperson. The plan is to use environmentally-friendly equipment such as electric cranes, while also allowing the facility to increase the number of containers handled annually from an estimated 700,000 to about 1.6 million.
“Obviously, being able to double capacity is important for the long-term growth of the Port area, making sure that Long Beach and LA continue to be attractive areas for customers to do business with us.”
But not everyone sees it that way. During a community informational meeting last week, several members of the public stood up and spoke out against the expansion with concerns of increased activity and therefore, further air pollution.
“The particular matter can cause cancer, lung disease and heart disease because it gets into your lungs and won’t come out,” said John Cross, who spoke at the meeting. Cross is also the Vice President of the West Long Beach Neighborhood Association, and says that his community is suspicious of the plan.
Increasing rail usage is fine, he says, but trucks will still be needed to carry cargo from the ships to the facility, and Union Pacific’s plan to more than double their production will offset any environmental efforts they make.
“Our position is we want on-dock rail,” Cross says. “Load the trains directly on the dock.”
“We’ve tried to push as much business a spossible into that on-diock configuration where it goes from the ship to the train,” says Richmond. “The unfortunate part is that we’re starting to reach capacity at the Port, and we can’t serve any more customers. There really isn’t any more land where you can build for trains, so the next best option is to do near-dock, which is what ICTF is. The fear is that if we’re not able to modernize this facility, and we end up reaching capacity at some point, then what you’re going to have to do is take that off-dock – which means the trucks will have to travel a lot further to get to a rail facility, and obviously creating more emissions.”
Cross and other would point out that Port operations have slowed to a relative crawl during the economic downturn, but Union Pacific says it’s planning for the future.
The truth is that no one is quite sure how the plan will affect air quality yet, and we’ll all just have to wait for the EIR to be released sometime this summer. If all goes smoothly, final plans will be released in November or December of this year.
More community meetings are planned, and we’ll keep you up to date as the story develops.
By Ryan ZumMallen, Managing Editor