Last week a California Court issued a tentative statement of decision in Hugo Neu-Proler v. City of Colton in regards to a plan by Pacific Rail to install an auto shredder at their facility in Colton, Calif. The court decision came after Hugo Neu-Proler filed a lawsuit early this year against the recycling company, as well as the city, over the environmental impact report. Hugo Neu operates an existing scrap recycling and auto shredding facility across the street from Pacific Rail.
The case challenged the city of Colton's certification of an EIR and approval of a metal shredding operation.
According to a release issued this week, the city of Colton expressed satisfaction that the court upheld the city’s environmental review of the project against the vast majority of the challenges raised by Hugo Neu.
While disappointed with the court’s decision requiring additional environmental review of certain aspects of the project's traffic, the handling of hazardous materials, and cumulative air quality because the City conducted an extensive and thorough environmental review of the project, the city will comply with the court's decision by undertaking additional environmental review in the three limited areas the court identified.
Due to the limited scope of the problems found by the court, the city expects the additional review can be completed quickly. One of the problems dealt with traffic flow. The city expects to undertake additional review of the truck traffic generated by the project and the route that traffic would take to and from the project site.
Second, regarding hazardous materials, the court found the Draft EIR should have included a discussion of the possibility that the project would not receive a “nonhazardous” designation for the shredder fluff. However, prior to the hearing, Pacific Rail received authorization from the Department of Toxic Substances Control to handle the shredder fluff as non-hazardous waste. Thus, DTSC's authorization, which occurred after the city's approved the project, have eliminated this concern.
Finally, the court found that the EIR's discussion of cumulative air quality impacts was not sufficient. The court agreed that, for purposes of analyzing the impacts to the South Coast Air Quality Basin, the project was appropriately viewed as the relocation of the existing metal shredding facility from the City of Carson to the City of Colton. The only cumulative air quality impacts that would require discussion are impacts that would be caused by the relocation of the shredder, not its operation.