Southern California air regulators have adopted a first-of-its-kind rule to curb smog-forming pollution from freight trains and trucks serving the region's rail yards.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District's board of directors voted 12-0 Friday to require rail yard owners and operators, including BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, to aggressively reduce emissions of lung-irritating nitrogen oxides between 2027 and 2050.
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The region's rail yards produce nearly 22 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions a day, about 9% of all smog-forming pollution in the air basin.
The new regulation, applicable to about 25 rail yards in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, would help reduce pollution from regional rail yards by about 80% by 2036. Once implemented, the rule is expected to prevent 300 premature deaths and 2,100 hospitalizations each year, according to the air district, by improving air quality in communities that border the rail yards, including Wilmington and San Bernardino.
“While there is no single rule or regulation that can single-handedly achieve federal air quality standards, today’s adoption is a big step in the right direction,” said Vanessa Delgado, president of the air district’s board of directors. “There are many communities, parks and schools that are surrounded and impacted by sources associated with rail yards that will directly benefit from today’s action. We will continue to reduce emissions where we can because that is what our communities deserve.”
Before the vote, dozens of community members and environmental advocates expressed their support for the rule, many wearing T-shirts that read “My heart is in your hands,” alluding to the cardiovascular effects associated with breathing polluted air. Many hoped the regulation could mark a new beginning for communities near rail corridors.
“This is about correcting a historical injustice,” said Samuel Brown-Vazquez, who spoke at Friday’s public hearing. “In Avocado Heights, where I live, our community was devastated by the creation of the rail yard and the impacts it had.”
The regulations are intended to clean up some of the most persistent sources of pollution within Southern California's busy freight transportation sector, especially diesel-powered trains.
Emissions from trains — about 70% of all pollution from rail yards — have remained virtually unchanged over the past decade, in part because the rail industry has not purchased new locomotives with cleaner engines, according to the air district.
The new air district rule is expected to work in tandem with state Air Resources Board rules governing locomotives and trucks. But the new regulation is needed because previous state truck rules have not been as effective at reducing pollution in Southern California compared with other parts of the state, according to air district officials.
The rail yard rule will ensure that emissions reductions at Southern California rail yards are on par with state rules.
However, the new emissions-reduction rule can only go into effect if the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves the region's smog plan and state regulations for locomotives and truck fleets.
San Bernardino County Supervisor and Air District Board Member Curt Hagman expressed concerns about the feasibility of achieving these reductions, given the improvements needed to the power grid and electrical infrastructure to accommodate cleaner rail yards.
Wayne Nastri, the air district's executive director, said a recent, historic $500 million grant from the EPA could help. He also noted that there could be flexibility to waive penalties if rail yards experience delays or difficulties.
“There’s been a tremendous effort at the state level to ensure that we have the power capacity to meet the growing needs,” Nastri said. “But the challenge that’s been identified most recently is the final connection of facilities, making sure that facilities have the substations, the circuits, the transformers, and the time it takes to process that.”
In Southern California, at least three agencies regulate air quality: the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates facilities; the California Air Resources Board, which regulates cars and trucks within the state; and the EPA, which regulates trains, planes, and ships.
Since some of Southern California’s biggest polluters are regulated by the federal government, the local air district has attempted to get around its own limitations by requiring facilities to offset pollution. The district’s first such rules, adopted in 2021, set requirements for large warehouses to mitigate pollution from the truck traffic they attract.
The rail yard rule is the air district's second such policy.
While the rule will not apply to rail yards at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the air district is developing a similar proposal to reduce emissions at the port complex, the largest stationary source of smog-forming pollution in the region.
