The Natural Resources Defense Council, South Coast Air
Quality Management District and Long Beach Unified School District all
submitted anti-SCIG lawsuits in Los Angeles Superior Court June 7, alleging
that the Port of Los Angeles didn’t conduct a full and thorough environmental
review before approving the project.
The City of Long Beach made similar allegations when filing
its lawsuit June 5. Long Beach and the other plaintiffs say the SCIG would
adversely affect its residents, businesses and schools by bringing more noise
and air pollution to an area that has already suffered plenty over the years
due to nearby port-related operations.
They seek an injunction against the 153-acre project, which
was approved by the Los Angeles City Council in May 2013 and by the Port of Los
Angeles Commission about two months before that.
If built, the BNSF-owned project would sit just outside West
Long Beach, alongside the Terminal Island Freeway on land owned by the Port of
LA. It would serve on-dock rail facilities at both the Port of Long Beach and
the Port of Los Angeles.
Despite allegations that it would increase asthma and cancer
rates in the West Long Beach area, BNSF contends that if built, the SCIG would
reduce truck traffic, freeway congestion and air pollution by eliminating about
1.3 million truck trips annually along a 24-mile stretch of the Long Beach 710
Freeway to BNSF’s Hobart Yard near downtown LA.
Originally, construction was due to begin later this year
and open in 2016, but that plan could be delayed or scrapped altogether
depending on the status of the legal actions against it.
