[See also the update section below for exhibits added later today. – RS]
On February 8, 2016, the law firm Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo sent the City of Benicia of a lengthy and detailed review, highly critical of the City’s Final EIR on Valero Crude By Rail. (Warning – this is a 10 MB download.)
The letter is written on behalf of “Safe Fuel and Energy Resources California (‘SAFER California’) and individuals who reside and work in the City of Benicia.” It features individual reviews by well-known environmental experts Dr. Phyllis Fox and Dr. Petra Pless.
The Benicia Independent has created an INDEX to the document which is lengthy and is followed by extensive supporting attachments (see text version below).
| Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cardozo – INDEX | |
| PDF Page # | Description |
| 1 | Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cordozo comments, cover letter |
| 2 | I. Interest of Commenters |
| 3 | II. The City’s responses to comments are inadequate |
| 5 | III. The City’s application of federal preemption is overbroad & conflicts with the constitutional exercise of traditional police powers |
| 12 | IV. The city still lacks substantial evidence to support its conclusions in the FEIR regarding the project’s significant impacts and still fails to incorporate all feasible mitigation measures necessary to reduce such impacts to a less than significant level |
| 36 | V. The FEIR still fails to analyze all feasible alternatives |
| 38 | VI. The FEIR fails to disclose the project’s inconsistencies with the City’s general plan |
| 40 | VII. The FEIR fails to disclose the project’s inconsistencies with the general plans of uprail cities and counties |
| 43 | VIII. Conclusion |
| 44 | Attachment A: Findings for denial (Exhibit C) |
| 57 | Attachment B: Responses to Adams Broadwell Joseph & Cordozo comments |
| 60 | Attachment C: Dr. Phillis Fox, Comments on FEIR |
| 62 | I. Summary & Conclusions |
| 65 | II. Failures to analyze air quality impacts on different types of crude |
| 71 | III. Underestimate of ROG estimates |
| 85 | IV. Southern route not analyzed |
| 97 | V. Alternatives to the project |
| 98 | VI. Mitigations not required |
| 106 | Attachment D: Dr. Petra Pless, Review of FEIR |
| 107 | Cover letter |
| 108 | I. Inadequacies of project description & EIR analyses not adequately supported |
| 112 | II. Failures to mitigate air quality impacts – construction |
| 119 | III. Failures to mitigate air quality impacts – operations |
| 164 | IV. The EIR’s Health Risk Assessments Are Substantially Flawed and Fail to Identify Significant Impacts |
| 181 | V. Recommendation |
| 182 | Attachment F-1, REVISED ASSUMPTIONS FOR Year 2014 Daily Line Haul Locomotive Criteria Pollutant Emissions -100 Railcars per Day per EIR Methodology |
| 185 | Attachment F-2 Project characteristics, assumptions, and locomotive emissions according to Phillips 66 SMR CBR FEIR and Valero Benicia CBR FEIR |
| 187 | Locomotive Emissions |
UPDATE:
On Feb. 10, the City of Benicia posted extensive additional Exhibits to the SAFER California Letter of February 8, 2016. See below, or go to the City’s page. [#53 and #62 are broken links. I will fix if/when I get better information. – RS]
Pless_Exhibit_F1_-_F21
Ex._1_SJVAPCD_Authority_to_Construct_Application_ Review_Bakersfield_Terminal_2012-07-25
Ex._2_Emissions_Rail_Car_Fugitives_Revised
Ex._3_Rasmussen_et_al
Ex._4_Targa_Project_ISMND_FINAL_02242012
Ex._5_Midland_Valves_for_Pressure_Cars
10. Phillips Rail Spur Project FEIR December 2015
14. Impl_doc
17.(2) Tec_development_doc_final_2000
17. Impl_doc
18. ep724-stb-data-spreadsheet
20._RA_05-01_SPRD_Peformance_Saa_Nov_05
22. (b)_4185_Field_Guide_To_Tank_Cars1-opt
22. CH2ThresholdsTables5-2015
26._H51A Executive Summary
36._Improving_Securement_in_Hazardous_Materials
36. (1)2014_crude_by_
36. (2)2015_crude_by_
36. (3)2013_crude_by_
36. (4)2012_crude_by_
36. (5)2011_crude_by_
36. (6)2010_crude_by_
36. (7)2009_crude_by_
45. Phillips Rail Spur Project FEIR December 2015
52. __102634-west-coast-seein
53.
58._vi.
59. (1)ethylene-oxide-4pg-brochure
59. (2)ethylene-oxide-4pg-brochure
61._c79122pirol-newsAr
62. tsocorpsite.files.wor…tesoro-dot-120-fact-sheet
63.
66. RAR1201
68._SP16188_2014060840