Long Beach : Residents Near Rail Yard Want to Limit Noise, Fumes

Residents in west Long Beach want the city to take legal action against Southern Pacific Railroad to limit noise and diesel fumes coming from a cargo yard within 15 feet of their houses.

Councilmen agreed Tuesday to research legal options in committee.

The Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, which runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is a yard leased to the railroad by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Homeowners complained of noise registering above 65 decibels, about the sound of a loud motorcycle. One man showed a video of his neighbor wiping soot off her living room furniture.

The noise and fumes, caused mostly by workers linking trains together and letting their engines idle, could be limited if the railroad switched that process to a track at the far end of the yard, said Ray Familathe, business agent for the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union Local 13.

“It would have a maximum effect because emissions would not be right there in the neighborhood,” Familathe said. “It’s an operational situation that could be changed at the drop of a hat.”

A spokesman for the railroad disagreed. Southern Pacific is funding a study to look for other ways to limit sound and fumes, said Royce D. Green, the railroad’s director of special projects.