By Post Staff

The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) this week filed suit against the Port of Oakland for approving a large-scale sand and gravel storage terminal without adequately analyzing or mitigating the project’s significant impacts to public health and the environment, as required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

West Oakland is already a severely environmentally overburdened community, and the proposed Eagle Rock Aggregates Oakland Terminal Project would contribute significantly to local air pollution, carbon emissions, noise, and water pollution.

WOEIP, a resident-led, community-based environmental justice organization, filed the lawsuit March 25 in Alameda County Superior Court. The group is demanding the project be rescinded, and if the Port continues to pursue this project, that the terminal’s environmental impacts to be adequately mitigated, as CEQA requires.

“This sand and gravel project would have severe negative impacts on the health of the people in my community,” said Margaret Gordon, co-founder of WOEIP and a former Port Commissioner. “The Port of Oakland Commissioners appear to be completely ignoring the public health impacts that would be caused by the dust blowing off the open-air piles of gravel aggregate into our neighborhoods; the 50 added ship visits every year, all idling in Port and burning one of the dirtiest fuels on the planet; and the 375 new daily truck trips along local West Oakland streets, all spewing diesel particulate matter directly into our air and our homes.”

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“Looking beyond today’s legal action, we welcome collaboration with Port Commissioners and staff who are willing to work with us under the Community Health Protection Program established by AB 617,” added Gordon. “Our common goal can be to reduce emissions at the Port, for example by switching to zero-emission electric trucks and equipment.”

West Oakland residents are disproportionately lower-income and people of color, and they already face significantly elevated public health threats compared to more affluent Bay Area communities, including other parts of Oakland. West Oakland residents have a higher exposure to diesel particulate matter than 99% of Californians, according to CalEnviroScreen 4.0, according to WOEIP. Local residents’ asthma rates are worse than 98% of Californians, and they have a life expectancy that is 7.5 years shorter than that of the average Alameda County resident.

Residents in the West Prescott neighborhood, nearest to the proposed project site, have nine times the U.S. average toxic air contaminant cancer risk. Diesel particulate matter is responsible for more than 90% of thae total cancer risk in West Oakland.

The Eagle Rock project would significantly increase the level of particulate matter and diesel exhaust in West Oakland neighborhoods, in addition to increasing the Port’s carbon emissions.

“The environmental analysis for this project is clearly inadequate under state environmental law,” said Laura Beaton, attorney at Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, representing WOEIP. “The Eagle Rock Aggregates project would have significant negative environmental and public health impacts, yet the Port of Oakland has failed to analyze these impacts, identify and adopt effective mitigation measures are reduce or avoid them, or consider or adopt reasonable alternatives.”

“It’s a serious challenge to the Port’s authority” says Brian Beveridge, co-founder of WOEIP. “And we don’t take it lightly. But, in casually certifying this deeply flawed environmental review, the Port Commission has abandoned its obligation to protect our public interests in the shoreline and our air.”

Port officials were notified by the California Attorney General’s Office, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the California Air Resources Board that the environmental studies for this project are fatally flawed. Nevertheless, the Port’s decision has been to move ahead with the project.

In 2017, WOEIP brought a complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act against the Port for its longstanding pattern of environmentally racist practices. In response, the Port implemented a Public Engagement Plan designed to build communication and trust between the community and the Port. However, although community groups engage in ongoing discussions with the Port, they claim their input has not led to any meaningful change in the Port’s operations.

“The Port’s actions are those of a bad neighbor,” said Gordon. “The people of West Oakland should not have to go to court to protect their health. If the Port wanted to be a responsible neighbor, they would try to mitigate the public health impacts of this project. Instead, they have left us with no other option than to fight a legal battle to protect the public health of the people in our community.”

For more information about the lawsuit, contact Severn Williams at 510-336-9566 or sev@publicgoodpr.com.

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