Moving Forward on Jobs and the Environment at the Ports

by Gary Toebben

International trade is the cornerstone of our economy here in Southern California. So too is our great weather and quality of life. That is why BNSF Railway Company’s proposed Southern California International Gateway (SCIG) project is so important to Los Angeles County and all of Southern California.

This project will help the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles to maintain their competitiveness after the widening of the Panama Canal. It will also take trucks off our freeways and install new cargo handling equipment that will be much cleaner for the environment.

Earlier this month, after nearly eight years of environmental review, the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously certified the SCIG Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and recommended approval by the L.A. City Council. But less than a week later, two elected officials from Long Beach and several environmental groups appealed the project, arguing that SCIG won't provide environmental benefits to Long Beach and that BNSF has not made sufficient commitments to the community. These claims are far from the truth and ignore the major benefits of this very important project.

The port's EIR concluded that the project will be a substantial improvement over the status quo. It will result in improved air quality and reductions in health risks for surrounding communities. BNSF’s facility will remove millions of truck miles from the 710 Freeway each year and create thousands of direct and indirect jobs for neighboring residents through a local hiring preference. It will also save existing jobs at the ports that could be lost if modernization does not take place.

BNSF has made the extraordinary commitment to make SCIG the greenest intermodal yard in the country. The company will invest $100 million in the greenest technology in the world to provide low-emission electric cranes and switching locomotives, and progressively cleaner trucks on designated routes, including 90 percent liquefied natural gas or equivalent emissions by 2026. BNSF will also invest $3 million in a zero emissions container movement system.

To shield the rail yard from neighbors, BNSF will build a 12-foot-high soundwall with landscaping along the eastern side of the Terminal Island Freeway in Long Beach, from West 20th Street to Sepulveda Boulevard even though trucks serving BNSF’s facility will not actually travel along the Terminal Island Freeway north of Pacific Coast Highway. This is a direct benefit to neighbors who have lived adjacent to this industrial area for years.  

BNSF has spent years talking with and listening to its future neighbors, and the benefits speak for themselves. Now is the time to move forward with this essential project to put people to work, take trucks off the road, and improve the air and the environment around the ports of Long Beach and L.A. The SCIG is a win for both the environment and the economy.  It is exactly what L.A. County and our region needs.   

And that's The Business Perspective.