Repost from the San Luis Obispo Tribune [Editor: Nice to know that the folks in San Luis Obispo (home of Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery) are keeping an eye on Benicia…. – RS]
California city plans more study of crude-oil rail shipments
The Associated PressFebruary 4, 2015
BENICIA, Calif. — The city of Benicia is planning further review of a refinery’s plan to move as many as 100 train cars of flammable crude oil daily through Northern California communities.The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/1LLESFw ) Benicia officials said Tuesday that they have decided to redo some sections of an environmental impact analysis of the project. The city plans to release a rewritten report June 30 for public review.
The decision comes after numerous groups, including Attorney General Kamala Harris, called the city’s review of the project inadequate.
The Valero Refining Company in Benicia plans to have trains travel on the Union Pacific line that runs through downtown West Sacramento and Davis, along the same tracks that carry Capitol Corridor passenger trains between Sacramento and the Bay Area.
Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com
Repost from The Sacramento Bee [Editor: The Bee presents a good summary of uprail critiques of Valero’s plan, quoting City staff, Valero and the CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. Note that organized local opposition has also been strong and persistent. – RS]
Benicia plans more study of crude-oil train impacts
By Tony Bizjak, 02/03/2015
In this July 24, 2014 file photo, an investigator photographs the scene where a locomotive and cars carrying crude oil went off the track beneath the Magnolia Bridge in Seattle. Mike Siegel / AP Photo/The Seattle Times
A controversial proposal by the Valero Refining Company in Benicia to run two 50-car crude-oil trains a day through Sacramento and other Northern California cities to its bayside refinery has hit another slowdown.
Benicia officials on Tuesday said they have decided to redo some sections of an environmental impact analysis of the project. The city plans to release a rewritten report June 30 for public review and comment over the summer.
The city’s decision comes after numerous groups, including Sacramento leaders, state Attorney General Kamala Harris and state oil spill prevention officials, called Benicia’s review of the project inadequate.
Those critics said Benicia failed to analyze the potential impacts of an oil spill and fire in cities, waterways and rural areas along the rail line, and also did not analyze the project’s potential impacts east of Roseville in environmentally sensitive areas such as the Feather River Canyon. They also challenged Benicia’s assertion that an oil spill between Roseville and Benicia would be a once-in-a-111-year event.
Crude-oil rail shipments have come under national scrutiny in the last year. Several spectacular explosions of crude oil trains, including one that killed 47 in a Canadian town in 2013, have prompted a push by federal officials and cities for safety improvements.
Sacramento and Davis leaders have called on Benicia to require the Union Pacific Railroad to give advance notice to local emergency responders, and to prohibit the railroad company from parking or storing loaded oil tank trains in urban areas. Local officials want the railroad to use train cars with electronically controlled brakes and rollover protection. Sacramento also has asked Benicia to limit Valero to shipping oil that has been stripped of highly volatile elements, including natural gas liquid.
Valero officials had said they hoped to begin receiving crude oil by trains early this year. In an email to the Bee, Valero spokesman Chris Howe said, “The proposed steps (by Benicia) are part of the process which we expect will allow the city to grant us a use permit for the project.”
In a hearing Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., Jack Gerard, the president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, lamented that lengthy reviews were holding up the development of the country’s energy resources, including the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been under review by the State Department for seven years.
Gerard said some opponents were turning the process into a referendum on fossil fuels. “What we’re seeing across the country today is there’s a small group of individuals who are using permitting processes and infrastructure as surrogates to stop economic activity that they disagree with,” he told the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials.
Benicia will update crude-by-rail project’s environmental report
By Irma Widjojo, 02/03/15
Benicia >> The City of Benicia announced Tuesday that staff will be updating sections of the draft environmental impact review report for Valero Benicia Refinery’s proposed crude-by-rail project.
“There’s a requirement that if we’ve identified any issues that might have new significant impacts we would have to circulate the report,” interim Community Development Director Dan Marks said.
Marks said staff has identified one to two of those issues, and is still reviewing the public comments received after the draft report was initially released in June. However, he did not release any specifics of the identified issues, citing ongoing review.
Marks said the updated sections are set to be recirculated June 30, at the earliest. The public will then have 45 days from the release date to submit any comments on the updates.
“This is a scheduling announcement,” he said. “We’re still working on it. It’s going to take a while.”
The initial report states that the controversial project would have “significant and unavoidable” air-quality impacts within the Sacramento basin because of emissions from oil trains traveling to and from the refinery. However, the project would result in “no impact” or “less-than-significant” impacts locally to biological resources, cultural resources, energy conservation, geology and soils, greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous materials, water quality, land use and planning and noise, the report finds.
If approved, the proposed project would allow the refinery to bring two 50-tanker car trains of crude oil in and out of Benicia every day, replacing crude shipments by boat.
Repost from City of Benicia, CA – Valero Crude By Rail [Editor: Not surprisingly, we will need to wait a few more months while the City’s consultants respond to the overwhelming critical comments on the first Draft of Valero’s EIR. Thanks to all who wrote or spoke at Planning Commission hearings. We will keep you informed when the comment period opens on the Recirculated document. Note that once again, the City is scheduling only the minimum 45-days for comments on the RDEIR. – RS]
Valero Crude by Rail UPDATE:
The City has reviewed all of the comments submitted on the Draft EIR and has determined that sections of the Draft EIR will need to be updated and recirculated. The anticipated release of the Recirculated Draft EIR for public comment is June 30, 2015. The Recirculated Draft EIR will have a 45-day comment period. After the comment period on the Recirculated DEIR closes, the City will complete the Final EIR which will include responses to all comments on the original Draft EIR and the Recirculated Draft EIR.
The City has reviewed all of the comments submitted on the Draft EIR and has determined that sections of the Draft EIR will need to be updated and recirculated. The anticipated release of the Recirculated Draft EIR for public comment is June 30, 2015. The Recirculated Draft EIR will have a 45-day comment period. After the comment period on the Recirculated DEIR closes, the City will complete the Final EIR which will include responses to all comments on the original Draft EIR and the Recirculated Draft EIR.
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