Waste Station Opponents Cite Traffic, Pollution : Environment: Residents voice concern over potential health hazards of trash facility. Proponents say the project will bring jobs, revenue to the city.

A multimillion-dollar plan to build a waste-transfer station in the City of Commerce has drawn a wave of protest from residents who fear increased truck traffic, added air pollution and potential health hazards.

Known as Rail-Cycle, the project is one of a handful of proposed waste-by-rail systems that would transport municipal trash by train to landfills in outlying regions.

If approved, commercial and residential garbage from cities throughout the Los Angeles Basin would be brought to Commerce in trucks, generating an estimated 1,500 daily vehicle trips in and out of the tiny, largely industrial city.

Once at the transfer station, the waste would be loaded onto rail cars and shipped 200 miles east to a privately owned landfill in San Bernardino County. Officials estimate more than 3,300 tons of solid waste would be brought into Commerce each day.

“If we thought we had bad truck problems now, just wait,” Anthony Thorpe, one of Commerce’s 12,000 residents, said. “Those trucks will never stop blasting us with carbon monoxide.”

Thorpe was one of hundreds of residents who voiced concern about congestion and air quality during four meetings held last month with representatives from Rail-Cycle. Solutions to some of those problems are expected to be presented to the Planning Commission this week in a revised environmental report.

A public hearing will be held in September, said Commerce spokeswoman Judy Rambeau.

The project is a venture of Waste Management of North America Inc., the world’s largest waste hauler, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, which owns the land on which the transfer station would be built.

Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts has predicted that the county will run out of space to dump garbage within five years, so out-of-town landfills are becoming increasingly necessary, sanitation district officials argue.

Even so, residents in Commerce are angry that the solution to a regional problem might be made at the expense of their community. They have requested help from Supervisor Gloria Molina and Assemblywoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), who have sent representatives to meetings between the residents, city officials and Rail-Cycle officials.

“We just want to make sure that the residents receive all the information they need on the project,” said Yolanda Chavez who works for Roybal-Allard. “We also want to know how this transfer station will serve the residents of Commerce, and how they will benefit.”

Rail-Cycle representatives are quick to point out that they will pay $550,000 to the city when the facility is finished in 1994, and after three years will pay $2 million annually. They say the transfer station will create 135 jobs and will help Commerce comply with a state law that requires all cities to recycle at least 25% of their waste by 1995.

“It’s a good project, both for Los Angeles County and for the City of Commerce,” Project Manager David Edwards said.

However, a consultant enlisted by Molina’s office criticized the first draft of the project’s environmental report, saying it failed to address traffic and air pollution issues thoroughly.

Increased traffic and air pollution are the two biggest areas of concern to the city, Ruben McDavid said.

Rail-Cycle’s Edwards argues that the project will actually improve air quality throughout the Los Angeles Basin, which includes Commerce, because trash trucks will be making fewer trips in the region.

He also points to studies showing that truck traffic has decreased in Commerce--due to businesses closing or moving--by an estimated 140,000 trips since 1990.

“We are adding less than 7% of the truck trips that used to come in and out of the city,” he said.

As for air quality, he said, “it’s not as if there were a column of air that is somehow suspended over the City of Commerce. The (Air Quality Management District) measures air quality throughout the entire basin.”

But resident Thorpe scoffs at the notion that pollution will diminish in Commerce. “They must think that we are fools,” he said. “Like we believe that we are getting more trucks and the air will be cleaner. Well, it’s nice for the basin, but not for us, thank you.”