The US Division of Justice (DOJ) introduced Tuesday that it reached a settlement with Genesee & Wyoming Railroad Companies Inc. (GWRSI) to deal with the corporate’s Clear Air Act violations. The DOJ and the Environmental Safety Company (EPA) concurrently filed a criticism in opposition to GWRSI for its violations.
In 2019, the EPA asserted that GWRSI violated the Clean Air Act by:
inserting Locomotives into service that didn’t adjust to required emissions requirements and have an EPA-issued certificates of conformity; failing to implement required upkeep on Locomotives in its fleet; and failing to maintain required upkeep data for Locomotives in its fleet.
Tuesday’s criticism alleges that GWRSI’s rebuilt locomotives didn’t adjust to EPA emission requirements that require engines to be rebuilt with the most recent expertise to cut back emissions. The consent decree signed by the events requires GWRSI to rebuild locomotives in compliance with EPA requirements, be certain that it doesn’t purchase or promote locomotives that fail to satisfy these requirements, and sustain with obligatory upkeep and associated data.
GWRSI pays a $1.35 million civil penalty and estimates that it’s going to spend $42 million to rectify its violations and scale back its emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The settlement additionally requires GWRSI to completely destroy 88 locomotives that aren’t topic to EPA emission requirements due to their ages.
Assistant Legal professional Normal of the Environmental and Pure Sources Division Todd Kim said:
By requiring locomotives to comply with emissions requirements, and requiring dozens of older, higher-polluting locomotives to be scrapped altogether, this consent decree reduces well being threats from air air pollution nationwide, notably in these communities that stay alongside railroad corridors.
The settlement will probably be open for a 30-day public remark interval and will probably be topic to last court docket approval.
