The National City Planning Commission voted Monday night to block a proposed biofuel depot after environmental groups and residents who live nearby warned that it would worsen pollution on the industrialized western side of the city.
In a 4-1 decision, the commission denied two critical permits for the industrial facility, which had been proposed on the west side of the city, less than a mile from a church, an apartment complex and Kimball Elementary School.
Several commissioners said they saw the decision as a move to curb the ongoing legacy of industrial businesses and polluted air in west National City.
“Let us take this opportunity to break the cycle,” said Commissioner Liliana Armenta.
Monday’s decision was a blow to Houston-based USD Clean Fuels, the company behind the proposed depot. Bill Frerking, the company’s chief administrative officer, said they would consider appealing the ruling to the National City City Council but declined to answer further questions.
The vote was a victory for environmental advocates, including National City resident Margarita Garcia and her daughter, Maggie Morales. Garcia has been fighting to clean up pollution in her neighborhood for two decades.
“We so pleased with the city's decision,” Morales wrote in a text Monday night. “We will pursue and continue our concerns to oppose … if they appeal."
José Franco Garcia, executive director of the Environmental Health Coalition, said the commissioners recognized the project would have fit into a pattern of heavy industrial pollution in a poor, majority-Latino neighborhood. (José Franco is not related to Margarita.)
“We heard from longtime residents saying what National City has suffered and what they want to see in National City moving forward,” he said. “And the planning commission heard that.”
Company executives had pitched the proposed depot as an environmental win for San Diego County.
The facility would serve as a distribution hub for biofuels — cleaner substitutes for petroleum-based gasoline and diesel, which produce fewer planet-warming gases. It was planned for a section of land owned by the railroad company BNSF Railway between the port and Interstate 5.
The company has argued repeatedly that the depot would have clear regional benefits. At Monday’s hearing, Frerking said it would allow the company to distribute fuels more efficiently across the county and would support California’s ambitious goals for fighting climate change and cleaning the air.
“This is a pro-environment, clean air project,” he said. “It sets an example of a beneficial project with no significant negative impacts.”
But those regional benefits would come at a cost for west National City, according to the city’s own environmental analysis. That’s because USD Clean Fuels would rely on heavy, diesel-burning trucks to offload the fuel from train cars at the depot and transport it to customers throughout the county.
West National City already sees more diesel particulate matter — tiny particles that can burrow into the lungs and bloodstream — than over 90% of California, according to state data. In past years, children there have visited the hospital for asthma-related emergencies at some of the highest rates in the county.
Residents have been pushing elected officials to clean up the west side. In 2010, the City Council pledged to undo the damage of past zoning decisions and slowly untangle those businesses from the neighborhood.
José Franco Garcia and other environmental advocates warned that the proposed project could reverse some of that progress.
State regulators have also raised their own concerns.
In their environmental analysis, National City staff had ultimately found that the project would not have a significant impact on residents’ health and recommended moving it forward.
But in a letter earlier this year, the Coastal Commission said the city’s environmental analysis used inadequate and outdated data tools to make their assessment.
The California Air Resources Board said in their own letter that city officials likely underestimated the total amount of diesel pollution and urged the city to require the company to use electric trucks and locomotives.
Company officials sought to resolve some of those fears by proposing a voluntary annual commitment of $200,000 in direct payments to the city. City staff recommended those dollars be set aside for efforts to curb pollution.
Some planning commissioners were more open to negotiating a future for the project.
During Monday night’s meeting, Planning Commission Chairman Martin Miller proposed allowing the biofuel depot to move forward with the requirement that the company require all trucks entering the facility to run on cleaner biofuels themselves.
Miller said he agreed that the specter of added diesel pollution was the project’s current “Achilles heel.”
But he warned that if they denied the proposal, it could lead BNSF, the railroad that owns the site, to move forward with a different project that could require less public input and be “significantly worse” for the neighborhood.
“That is the danger of denying this project, to me,” Miller said.
Vice Chairwoman Randi Castle agreed with Miller that the commission would likely see more projects like the proposed depot. But Castle said National City was “not a dumping ground.”
“Our fight is not done,” Castle said. “We will not stand for this anymore.”
