SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - Researchers and regulators are focusing what some say is unprecedented attention on a low-income, predominately Hispanic community of about 7,000 people living with pollution from a west San Bernardino rail yard, the Press Enterprise reports.
Alarmed by an analysis that found an unacceptable cancer risk in the neighborhood, the state is considering new air pollution rules for the rail yard. Loma Linda University is studying child asthma hospitalizations to look for trends. UCLA will examine the toxicity of rail yard emissions. And the railroad says it is continuing to make changes to cut pollution.
The busy BNSF Railway yard is a cargo transfer point, where goods are moved between diesel trucks and freight trains and where trains are assembled for long hauls.
Soot and other air pollution drift into the densely populated neighborhood nearby, creating a cancer risk more than 2.5 times higher than at any rail yard in the state, the California Air Resources Board found last year.
"The risk is not just problematic, but extraordinary near the San Bernardino rail yard," said Riverside Mayor Ron Loveridge, a member of the California Air Resources Board. "We have an obligation to do something about it."
At Loveridge's behest, the air board's staff is exploring regulations that would force the railroad to reduce the cancer risk, if voluntary efforts fall short. The staff is expected to report back to the board in February.
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the railroad has voluntarily cut pollution from the yard in half since 2005.
Among the changes, the company is using newer, cleaner locomotives that have devices to limit idling time; newer, less-polluting vehicles to move cargo containers; and new booths that allow trucks to enter and leave the yard twice as fast, reducing pollution from trucks idling at the booths, she said.
Kent said the railroad company believes the state overestimated the cancer risk last year.
Susana Negrete is a mother of four who lives less than 300 feet from the BNSF operation. Though she is encouraged by the state and academic attention, her family and neighbors still suffer from diesel pollution she said comes from the yard, she said.
"My son, the 9-year-old, had a bloody nose this morning, and it happens very often," she said.
Several of her neighbors have had lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses, and some have died, Negrete said. She and other community members have been fighting for pollution reductions for years, she added.
"I cannot say I'm happy, but at the least they are doing something," Negrete said. "Finally, we are seeing that they are listening."
One of those who listened is San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris.
He hosted a recent multi-agency meeting about the rail yard and other pollution problem sites and asked a Loma Linda University official for a study of the health problems among people living near the yard, said Sam Soret, chairman of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in the university's School of Public Health.
The school is examining area hospital admissions to see how often children in the neighborhood are treated for severe asthma attacks.
Loma Linda University also is seeking a $1 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a more comprehensive study that would involve interviewing a sample of residents to learn their health histories. Soret said the residents also would be examined for respiratory health.
Soret said he was struck by the proportion of children in the neighborhood, which had a median age of 25.2 in 2000, according to census data. Children 17 and under represent 38 percent of the population.
That's why he didn't want to wait for the EPA money to start the smaller hospital admissions study, using university resources.
"I felt we needed to get moving and do something," Soret said.
Another study is expected to start next week.
This one is headed by UCLA environmental health sciences professor John Froines, a nationally known expert on the toxic properties of soot and other fine-particle pollution.
Using a $280,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Froines will probe the toxicity level in the neighborhood.
In an interview, Froines said diesel soot can carry as many as 1,000 chemicals. His research group has developed laboratory procedures that can show the toxicity of various combinations of such chemicals, he said.
Froines also will examine particles that form after fumes leave locomotives, trucks and other rail yard equipment.
"These rail yards are enormous, and we have not been paying enough attention to these as pollution sources," Froines said.
At UC Davis, scientist Thomas Cahill, known for his work on air pollution from the 9 /11 World Trade Center attack that sickened firefighters and other emergency responders, is considering research to identify the specific sources of pollution in the neighborhood, said David Barnes, a researcher who works with Cahill.
The study would pinpoint how much of the neighborhood's pollution is from rail equipment and how much is from other sources.
Penny Newman, a Glen Avon-based environmental activist who brought the rail yard problem to the attention of various government and academic officials, described the regulatory and research efforts as "an unprecedented response to an unprecedented problem."
"Even if Burlington Northern has cut the pollution in half, it's still the worst rail yard in the state," she said. The research, she said, will lead to more facts and fewer arguments.
Negrete said she will keep fighting for cleaner air.
"These children here deserve better air ... " she said. "They live here. They are going to school here. They breathe this air 24-7.
"As long as we are standing, we will stand up."
(This item appeared in the Press Enterprise Nov. 4, 2009.)
