A coalition of conservation and environmental justice groups has filed a lawsuit against the city of Barstow, over its recent approval of BNSF’s Barstow International Gateway project.
The groups claim the nearly 5,000-acre project, which will become the largest rail facility in the U.S., will devastate the Mojave Desert ecosystem, worsen air pollution, and pose serious health and environmental risks to nearby communities.
BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the railway project has received strong support on the state, county and local levels.
The railway company’s B.I.G. project is the first transportation-related infrastructure project certified by Gov. Gavin Newsom under SB 149, and one of only 10 transportation projects that will receive this designation, the Daily Press reported.
Severe impacts claimed
The petitioners named in the lawsuit, filed this month by Earth Justice, include the Sierra Club, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Biological Diversity.
The lawsuit, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, claims that the city of Barstow failed to evaluate and mitigate the project’s multiple environmental harms and violated the California Environmental Quality Act.
Community advocates and legal counsel shared their opposition to the project, which will be built just west of Barstow.
“For years, my neighbors and I have told the city council that this expansion will have severe impacts on our community including increased air pollution and the deterioration of a beautiful ecosystem into a loud, 24-hour a day intermodal rail yard right outside our front doors,” said Sherry Baily, a community advocate and Sierra Club member, who lives across from the proposed BNSF project.
“The city council admitted there would be ‘significant and unavoidable impacts’ in its environmental review. In doing so, they ignored our concerns to side with a massive corporation. The impacts could be avoidable if they approved a plan that required developers to reduce pollution and meaningfully addressed our concerns, but instead we are being treated as disposable, unimportant and as a sacrifice to the profits of big business interests.”
The B.I.G. project
If completed, goods in containers will travel via trains from ports in Los Angeles County and Long Beach to BNSF’s state-of-the-art master-planned facility on 4,500 acres west of Barstow, according to BNSF.
The BNSF intermodal railway project is expected to create roughly 20,000 new jobs while helping to address logistics and supply chain issues.
The project includes a 140-acre solar farm, multiple rooftop solar warehouses, solar rail yard canopies and other related infrastructure, all built via union labor.
Billed as a “First of its Kind Rail Facility in the U.S.,” the project is expected to reduce truck and freeway congestion by eliminating nearly 800,000 truck trips per year.
The project site is generally north of Main Street, between Hinkley and Lenwood roads.
Construction on the B.I.G. project is expected to begin in late 2026 or early 2027, according to the city.
Back to the drawing board?
Seth Alston, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, spoke out against the project.
“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,” Alston said.
He said that “Barstow needs to go back to the drawing board.”
“If this goes unchallenged, communities will be choking on the fumes of the city’s mistake and the animals who rely on the Mojave River won’t stand a chance,” Alston added.
Too close to schools, homes?
The groups contend that the massive Barstow International Gateway project is problematic, as it will operate 24 hours a day near schools, homes, parks and churches.
The new facility plans to use diesel-powered trains, trucks and railyard equipment to transport goods the nearly 130 miles from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to Barstow, and more diesel trains to ship goods to the rest of the nation.
The groups claim that the Barstow City Council approved the railyard without any requirements to electrify its fleet.
Spewing fumes
Yasmine Agelidis, senior attorney on Earth Justice’s Right to Zero campaign, claimed that the rail facility will “spew” diesel fumes from the San Pedro Bay Ports to the High Desert of Barstow.
“Fenceline communities across Southern California need relief,” Agelidis said. “You’d be hard pressed to find a more suitable rail project to electrify today, which is why the developer and operator must invest in readily available non-polluting technology — instead of locking the region into diesel-guzzling technology for yet another century.”
The BNSF project, which includes 9 million square feet of warehouse, rail storage and logistics space, is expected to emit each year 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 groups said.
“Zero-emission equipment is available, cutting edge, and cost-effective,” Agelidis said “Yet, the city of Barstow and the railyard company claim non-polluting locomotives are not feasible. Barstow residents deserve a future where their health is protected, not put on the sidelines in favor of corporate profits.”
For more information on the lawsuit, visit biologicaldiversity.org.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Lawsuit threatens to derail BNSF plan for largest rail facility in US
Reporting by Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press / Victorville Daily Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press | USA TODAY Network
