Lois Capps: Phillips 66’s rail spur project poses too big a risk for SLO County

As a former school nurse in Santa Barbara, my top priority was always the health and safety of our children. Now, as member of the U.S. Congress, my top priority is still ensuring the health and safety of our children and, indeed, the entire community. However, San Luis Obispo County officials are now faced with a decision that threatens the health and public safety of communities not only on the Central Coast but throughout California.

In early 2016, the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission will decide whether to allow the oil giant Phillips 66 to build a rail spur to bring up to five crude oil trains per week to its refinery. These mile-long oil trains will travel across California, coming within a mile of the homes of 5 million Californians. That’s 5 million Californians who would live within the designated blast zone of these highly flammable oil trains, according to ForestEthics, if this plan is approved.

The fatal 2013 Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster in Canada was an important wake-up call to the threat from oil trains carrying toxic, explosive crude oil. But even without a catastrophic derailment, oil trains continuously spew hazardous diesel exhaust and other volatile air pollutants that present a severe threat to the health and safety of our local community.

According to the environmental impact report for the Phillips 66 proposal, the project will create “significant and unavoidable” levels of air pollution, including the release of toxic sulfur dioxide and cancer-causing chemicals. Crude oil trains are among the heaviest trains on our railways and moving heavier cargo results in more diesel exhaust. CalEPA has identified 40 toxic air contaminants in diesel exhaust from these trains, including poisonous gases and particulate matter, many of which are known carcinogens. Furthermore, we know that particulate matter produces tiny particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs, which is unsafe for everyone, but particularly to children whose bodies and brains are still developing. The long-term effects of exposure to particulate matter include decreased lung function, asthma, and increased deaths from lung and heart disease.

Less studied are the fugitive emissions from these trains, poisonous gases that vaporize out of crude oil and are vented into the atmosphere as these trains roll down the tracks through our state. The toxic compounds emitted from tank cars — like hydrogen sulfide, benzene and toluene — pose serious inhalation hazards that can lead to respiratory disease for those along the route. Given the vast quantities of oil on these trains, release of these pollutants is a danger that cannot be ignored.

It is clear to me that oil transported by these dangerous freight trains traveling through our communities is simply not worth the risk to the health and safety of SLO residents. At a time when heart and lung disease are among the leading causes of death in our country and far too many children struggle daily with asthma and other respiratory ailments, we must do all that we can to reduce and prevent the impact of these diseases.

On Thursday and Friday, the Planning Commission will hold the first public hearing on the Phillips 66 crude oil train project. Planning Commission staff recommends the permit be denied. Twenty California school boards and the national and California teachers associations oppose the project. The California Nurses Association opposes the project. I oppose this project. For the health and safety of all our children and communities more broadly, we must reject the Phillips 66 oil train proposal.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 6:16 PM with the headline "Lois Capps: Phillips 66’s rail spur project poses too big a risk for SLO County."