BNSF Railway says firm may cancel Wilmington rail yard after judge's ruling

BNSF Railway said Friday it may scrap plans altogether to build a new rail yard near Port of Los Angeles following a recent court ruling in which a judge found serious flaws in the project’s environmental review process.

“After a thorough review of the ruling, BNSF is troubled by what the decision represents and uncertain whether moving forward with the project is feasible at this time. We will confer with Port of Los Angeles officials, but it is not clear whether or how the project could be built under the framework set by the decision,” BNSF chief marketing officer Steve Bobb said in a statement.

Long Beach’s city govement, joined by several other litigants, went to court in 2013 to challenge Los Angeles harbor commissioners’ and City Council members’ approval of the project, known as Southe Califoia Inteational Railway, or SCIG.

BNSF had proposed to build a $500 million rail yard in the Wilmington area of Los Angeles, near West Long Beach. Long Beach officials contended the project should include buffers and other measures, such as grants for home air-filtration systems and double-pane windows, to protect residents’ health.

BNSF and Los Angeles officials asserted that SCIG would lead to improved environmental conditions by eliminating the need for harbor truckers to haul rail-bound freight all the way to BNSF’s Hobart Yard, which is 24 miles north of Port of Los Angeles in Commerce.

Project plans also included environmentally-friendly technologies such as low-emission locomotives and electric cranes.

Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barry P. Goode, however, determined the environmental review failed to assess the environmental impacts of building and operating SCIG within the context of activity levels at other rail facilities.

“What, if any, are the impacts of that at Hobart? In the surrounding area? The EIR does not assess these,” Goode asked while writing his ruling.

From BNSF’s perspective, Goode’s reasoning that SCIG’s environmental review should have included an analysis of other railyards is so broad that, if ever established as precedent, businesses may face greater difficulties in proposing projects that can survive environmental review.

“To be clear, the court’s ruling doesn’t simply make it difficult to proceed with SCIG, but rather has far-reaching implications for companies across a range of industries interested in investing in Califoia,” BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said in an email.

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Port of Los Angeles spokesman Phillip Sanfield said Friday a decision has not yet been made as to whether to appeal the case.

Although Long Beach officials challenged SCIG in court, City Attoey Charles Parkin said Friday the project could be modified to meet the city’s conces.

“My only comment is, this would be unfortunate,” he said of the possibility of BNSF abandoning the proposed railyard. “We trust there could be mitigations that would allow that project to go forward,” he said.

Kent said BNSF executives remain open to the possibility of a settlement, but the company has not yet received a reasonable proposal.