Why this matters
West National City is a state-designated “Portside Environmental Justice Neighborhood” slated for reduction of industrial emissions that have historically impacted the community.
National City leaders have delayed a decision on whether to allow a Texas-based company to build a fuel transfer station in a neighborhood the state has slated for reducing industrial pollution due to high asthma rates.
The decision came after hours of heated deliberation and public comment that started Tuesday evening and went past midnight. Councilmember Marcus Bush said he would approve the project if USD Clean Fuels would consider a path toward making it a “zero emission” project and motioned to postpone the decision in order to weigh options with the company.
Bush said he wanted to explore requiring the company to only allow contractors that use zero emission vehicles to use their services, as well as the possibility of planting trees to offset diesel emissions.
“I’m trying to look at ways how we can actually improve the air quality,” Bush said. “It’s a fact that the trees help clean our air.”
In a statement USD Clean Fuels said the company is ready to work with city staff and councilmembers to address the issues the councilmembers raised.
“We view the Council’s decision yesterday evening as a positive step for the project,” the statement said.
Bill Frerking, the CAO and Vice President of USD Clean Fuels, also said at the meeting that the company is not involved in or responsible for contracting companies to haul the fuel.
For more than a year National City residents pushed to block the USD Clean Fuels project, proposed for a property just off 18th Street, west of Interstate 5. The site is within a half-mile of Kimball Elementary and St. Anthony of Padua Church, with residential housing in between.
The fuel transfer station would require building additional tracks to an existing rail line in order to receive biodiesel fuels by train, mix them and ship them out by truck. The facility would operate 24 hours a day.
USD Clean Fuels says it would use 72 trucks a day, operating mostly between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m., and that drivers would avoid residential areas, schools and churches. Fuel would be carted in by rail between during the night and early morning, and the reduction of truck use would contribute to California’s clean air goals, the company also has said.
If approved, the company has promised to give the city $200,000 a year.
Acting City Manager Steve Magnaniello said to repair the one-mile stretch of road that trucks would be using would cost the city $1 million.
Several community members said in public comment that the community “is not for sale” and that the money offered would not offset the long term costs of dealing with health impacts.
Councilmember Jose Rodriguez said that while the project may help the state achieve its emission goals, the communities of National City have historically been impacted by industry that local leaders eventually regret.
“Why should we take the burden for the entire region, again?” Rodriguez said.
Residents say they already suffer from respiratory health issues due to diesel emissions from decades of portside industry. According to California state data, National City has among the county’s highest children’s asthma hospitalization rates.
Navy veteran and National City resident Liliana Armenta said she spent 20 years working on a ship with little choice as to her air conditions, but that her choice to live in National City was deliberate.
“I wore a uniform to defend freedom, not to come home and defend my lungs,” Armenta said.
Citing community concerns as well as an inconsistency with state goals of reducing emissions in the impacted community of West National City, the city’s planning commission blocked the project last month.
The city’s own environmental impact report recognized the project would be in conflict with the state’s “Portside Environmental Justice Neighborhoods” designation meant to reduce industrial impacts on communities chronically exposed to emissions from the port, freight, rail and industry.
On that basis, Councilmember Rodriguez suggested the council should reject the project, and was the only one to vote against continuing the discussion.
More than 70 community members and allied advocacy organizations rallied and marched before the meeting to protest the project, filling council halls and overflow rooms. The Environmental Health Coalition gathered over a thousand signatures against the project, and National School District board signed a proclamation against the project.
“Our students, they deserve more from us. Our community deserves more from us. Our family deserves more. Our teachers and staff deserve more,” said Michelle Gates, president of the National School District.
Some members of the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations Local 89 came out in support of the project.
Amy Castañeda, the Environmental Health Coalition’s policy director, said the group would keep fighting alongside community members to stop the project.
“If the city council didn’t hear us this time around, we’re going to make sure that they hear us next time,” Castañeda said.
Council agreed to consider the project with new conditions on Nov. 4.
Correction, Oct. 9, 2025: This story has been updated to reflect that Bill Frerking’s title is the Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of USD Clean Fuels. An earlier version of the story included the wrong title.
