Community Corner

Long Beach Unified Sues Over Massive Railyard Project

"The Long Beach Unified School District filed a lawsuit today over a
proposed railyard near schools, seeking proper analysis and mitigation
of emissions and other impacts upon West Long Beach school children and
school staff," the district just announced.

The Port of Los Angeles and L.A. County Board of Supervisors support the project, arguing that it is needed to help the port, and the economy that it supports, keep pace. The City of Long Beach, including Mayor Bob Foster, oppose the huge project, calling it a polluting health risk to thousands of nearby residents and workers.

The City of Long Beach has also sued L.A. over the project, and the Port of Long Beach also opposes it. Port of L.B. spokesman Art Wong said Friday that it had not filed a separate lawsuit over the project given that it is part of the city.

Here is the district's news announcement:

"Our school district's primary goal is to provide a safe learning
environment," said LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser.
"We cannot support a project that would pose any health risk to our
students and staff."

The suit asks the courts to set aside Los Angeles' leaders recent
approval of the Southern California International Gateway Project
(SCIG), asserting that the Los Angeles Harbor Department (the Port)
failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act when it
certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project.

The proposed project consists of a huge intermodal railyard to transfer
cargo containers between trucks and railcars.  The school district
operates numerous schools close to the project site, with the closest
school located only 210 feet away from the proposed project.

As currently proposed, the project will significantly increase diesel
and other emissions very close to these nearby schools, where those
emissions will adversely affect hundreds of school children attending
classes at the schools and playing outdoors on the school playgrounds.

The EIR masks the true impacts of the project on students, schools and
staff.  California has developed special standards for evaluating
emissions impacts on students, but the Port refused to apply those
standards.  Alternatives to the project such as on-dock rail would avoid
the impacts to students, but the Port refused to evaluate such
alternatives, instead dismissing them from consideration in the EIR.  A
number of mitigation measures were suggested to reduce impacts to
schools and school children, but the Port refused to consider them as
conditions of approval to the project.

The school district raised all of the above complaints, as well as
others, throughout the Port*s EIR process.  In response to the Notice
of Preparation that started the EIR process, the school district
identified specific environmental, health and safety impacts and
suggested a range of mitigation measures.  The school district raised
all of the issues in this lawsuit in its comments on the Draft EIR for
the project, and it reiterated these same concerns in its comments on
the Recirculated Draft EIR.  The school district also objected to the
project before both the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners and
the Los Angeles City Council.  In addition, the school district sought
to mediate these issues with the Port pursuant to CEQA's mediation
process, but the Port declined to participate in such a process


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