A coalition of environmental groups is suing Kern County over its approval of a project that would expand oil-by-rail shipments at a Bakersfield refinery.
The Kern County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the railyard expansion at the Alon Refinery on Rosedale Highway in September. The project would allow the refinery to process crude oil from the Midwest, delivered to Bakersfield by train.
Kassie Siegel is with the Center For Biological Diversity, one of the groups in the lawsuit.
Siegel: "Kern County rushed this enormous project through the approval process incredibly quickly, and as a result failed to disclose to the public or adequately consider the incredible safety health and environmental risks."
Siegel says those risks include a train derailment like the one that killed 47 people in Canada in 2013. In September though the county disputed claims from environmental groups that the project would pose a significant safety risk.
Siegel also says the county's air quality analysis was faulty.
Siegel: "Rather than compare what will happen as the result of reopening the refinery for crude oil compared to existing conditions, they compared it with what was going on in 2008, which is the last time they were processing crude oil. So their air quality analysis is completely misleading."
If the project moves forward the refinery's rail yard would on average receive two trains, each a mile long, every day.
