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News Links Archive Archived news stories on trade, environmental health, ports and goods movement | ||
September 2009 Archive |
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| Added September 30, 2009: | ||
Locomotive breath Five years ago, a study found that residents who lived near rail yards in California suffer a greater risk of cancer. The results reinforced the need for the state to implement mitigation measures, and last week the California Air Resources Board met to consider recommendations to reduce diesel emissions associated with rail yard activities.However, according to some environmentalists, the train is running behind schedule. Sacramento News and Review, Sacramento, CA. |
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| Added September 28, 2009: | ||
| $200M expansion of BNSF intermodal facility opening in Memphis next month A $200 million investment in an intermodal facility in Memphis is being heralded as a vote of confidence for the city's prominent role in moving goods across the country. The expanded Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad yard for transferring containers between trucks and trains is scheduled to open as early as next month. The expansion nearly doubles BNSF's intermodal capacity in Memphis. Ninety-foot-high electric cranes replace diesel ones, and the movement of trucks, trains, freight and workers will be guided by a global positioning system. Drivers entering the facility will gain access by putting thumbprints on biometrics readers. News Channel 3, Memphis, TN. http://www.wreg.com/sns-ap-tn--bnsfintermodal,0,6254597.story |
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Air board to weigh train pollution measures The California Air Resources Board on Friday will consider more than three dozen technical measures to reduce air pollution from locomotives and other equipment at the state's rail yards. Some Inland residents who live near rail yards say the measures are not aggressive enough. At Friday's meeting, the board will discuss a wide range of technical measures and funding proposals for rail yards, including use of less-polluting locomotives. The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, CA. http://www.pe.com/localnews/sbcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_W_railyard25.474cd03.html |
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| A new crop of eco-warriors take to their own streets In the Southland, these environmental justice activists, as they are called, wage war in the dense corridor that runs from the massive ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach through neighborhoods that line the 710 Freeway -- Wilmington, Carson, Compton, Huntington Park, Commerce-- and on through Riverside and San Bernardino counties, with their vast distribution warehouses . "There are no buffer zones," said Gilbert Estrada, a teacher who co-founded the East Yard group with Logan. "We are the buffer zones." Each year, pollution from ships , trucks and trains that move goods through the region contributes to an estimated 2,100 early deaths, 190,000 sick days for workers, and 360,000 school absences, according to the California Air Resources Board. Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-air-pollution24-2009sep24,0,4461184.story |
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| Eastern Montana railway to reopen after derailment GLASGOW, Mont. -- Burlington Northern Santa Fe expects to reopen an Eastern Montana rail line Sunday after a derailment sent 13 freight cars off the tracks. Spokesman Gus Melonas says 12 of the cars that derailed 57 miles east of Glasgow on Saturday were empty, but one was carrying metam sodium, a corrosive liquid and pesticide. Seattle Pi, Seattle, WA. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_mt_train_derailment.html |
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| Added September 25, 2009: | ||
Man crushed to death at Port of LA A worker crushed to death by an empty freight trailer at the Port of Los Angeles was a 53-year-old Lakewood man, the coroner's office reported Sunday. John Robert Kiser was crushed about 7:20 p.m. Saturday at Berth 229, a large container dock on Terminal Island, according to the coroner and Shawn Lenske of the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was "pinned and crushed by an empty trailer that was moved by a utility tractor," Lenske said. The accident was being investigated by the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, Lenske said. Contra Costa Times, Contra Costa, CA. |
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State Considers Railyard Pollution Regulations The city of Commerce and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice are organizing a trip to a Sept. 25 California Air Resources Board, CARB, meeting in Diamond Bar where regulations on railyard emissions will be discussed. The city will provide bus transportation for the meeting, which starts at 8:30 am. Environmental advocacy group East Yard held a BBQ at Bristow Park in Commerce on Sunday where they distributed information to local residents about the diesel pollution issues related to CARB's proposed railyard emission reduction measure. Some residents in the area who say they are affected not only by emissions from the railyards but also from freeways and truck traffic, are eager to have their voices heard by politicians and decision-makers. EGPNews, Los Angeles, CA. |
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| Added September 18, 2009: | ||
Report: Gov't agency waives rules for shippers WASHINGTON — Members of Congress Thursday demanded a shake up at the agency that regulates the transport of hazardous materials, saying officials for years have quietly waived safety rules because of a cozy relationship with industry. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — which regulates more than 1 million daily shipments of potentially dangerous cargo by land, sea and air — has routinely granted or renewed waivers of rules without attempting to find out whether shippers had been involved in accidents or were cited for violations, according to investigations by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Transportation Department's inspector general. Chron , Houston, TX. |
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| Added September 11, 2009: | ||
| Packed house opposes North Middleton truck terminal plan Two years ago, a plan was introduced in North Middleton Township to build a motor freight terminal off Newville Road behind a strip of homes known as Westminster Manor. On Wednesday, residents of the neighborhood, township and greater Carlisle-area community finally had the opportunity to air their concerns about the plan to the board of supervisors. Nearly 100 people turned out to a conditional use public hearing to listen to what their friends and neighbors had to say about the proposal and to tell the board how they felt about the idea. Nobody spoke in favor of the project. The Sentinel , Cumberland County, PA. http://www.cumberlink.com/articles/2009/09/09/news/local/doc4aa86dd7cbe16180774893.txt | ||
| Report: Gov't agency waives rules for shippers Members of Congress Thursday demanded a shake up at the agency that regulates the transport of hazardous materials, saying officials for years have quietly waived safety rules because of a cozy relationship with industry. Chron, Washington, D.C. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/washington/6612203.html | ||
| L.A.'s warehouse workers: invisible and exploited Toiling in obscurity, L.A.-area warehouse workers endure harsh conditions and unfair wages. Los Angeles has long been a place where it's easy -- dangerously easy -- to labor in obscurity. Just ask any of the 90,000 workers employed at the immense warehouses of Ontario and Fontana, where more than half the goods unloaded at L.A. and Long Beach harbors are trucked, sorted and sent on their way to Wal-Marts, Targets, Home Depots and the like for a thousand miles around. LA Times, Los Angeles, CA. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-meyerson7-2009sep07,0,2245587.story | ||
| Shipping Emission Series by DC Bureau: | ||
| No Safe Harbor: The Shipping Industry's Pollution Problem Part I: Low-Hanging Fruit. The shipping industry is an invisible and nearly unregulated environmental disaster, and if you haven't heard much about its poor record, you're not alone. Compared to power plants, cars and even commercial aviation, shipping has drawn little scrutiny ─ it gets few mentions in the media, and activist groups tend to focus their attention elsewhere. If there were no pirates or seasick honeymooners, the shipping industry would barely register in the public consciousness. DC Bureau, Washington, D.C. http://dcbureau.org/20090831252/NRNS-Stories/no-safe-harbor-the-shipping-industrys-pollution-problem-part-i-low-hanging-fruit.html | ||
| No Safe Harbor: The Shipping Industry's Pollution Problem Part II: A Lack of Authority. Although the original shipping emissions standards established in the MARPOL treaty went into effect in 2005, they were written in 1997, and getting the more stringent 2008 revisions past the onerous IMO regulatory process was a battle that exhausted the few environmental groups that even engaged in the first place. Furthermore, the rules still do not address CO2 or other global warming risks, and some observers fear it is now too late to make a push to change the rules again. DC Bureau, Washington, D.C. http://dcbureau.org/20090901257/NRNS-Stories/no-safe-harbor-the-shipping-industrys-pollution-problem-part-ii-a-lack-of-authority.html | ||
| California Fights Shipping Pollution As International Shippers Push Back Massive cargo ships have long motored into the nation's busiest ports here and next door in Los Angeles, trailing plumes of sulfurous soot. They disgorge containers of toys, VCR's and sneakers, then chug out again loaded with scrap tin and waste paper. They are literally the slow boats to and from China, Singapore, and Japan, mighty container ships that have managed to elude air pollution regulation for half a century. DC Bureau, Washington, D.C. http://www.dcbureau.org/20090904261/NRNS-Stories/california-fights-shipping-pollution-as-international-shippers-push-back.html | ||
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