Legal Challenge to Amazon Air Hub in San Bernardino Should Be Reheard, AG Says

Jan. 4—California Attorney General Rob Bonta has requested a federal appeals court rehear an environmental challenge to the Federal Aviation Administration's 2019 approval of the Amazon Air Regional Air Hub at San Bernardino International Airport.

Bonta's predecessor, Xavier Becerra, and local environmental justice groups filed a federal lawsuit in early 2020, shortly after the FAA gave the new 660,000-square-foot logistics center at the former Norton Air Force Base its blessing.

A three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the challenge on a 2-1 vote in November.

Becerra and others allege that throughout the project's approval process, the FAA, the San Bernardino International Airport Authority and master developer Hillwood Enterprises ignored significant health risks the sorting facility would pose to the surrounding San Bernardino-Muscoy community.

Together, they have called for a comprehensive environmental review of the project before operations began there.

In November, the two 9th Circuit judges ruling against the suit wrote that the petitioners did not adequately argue that the FAA failed in its obligation to sufficiently consider the cumulative impacts of a project that would eventually have around-the-clock air and ground cargo operations near sensitive uses.

In her dissent, U.S. Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson wrote that the case "reeks of environmental racism, defined as 'the creation, construction, and enforcement of environmental laws that have a disproportionate and disparate impact upon a particular race.'"

Bonta, who succeeded Becerra in April, now wants the entire 9th Circuit to hear the argument and determine whether the three judges ruled correctly.

"It doesn't matter who you are or how much money you have," Bonta said in a news release Monday, Jan. 3. "You can't cut corners when the health and well-being of our communities is at stake. ... The fact is: communities like the one impacted by this Project in San Bernardino are all too often overburdened and under-resourced.

"These communities, who are already experiencing health harms from pollution," Bonta added, "deserve to be protected to the fullest extent of the law, and through our Bureau of Environmental Justice, we're committed to seeing this fight through."

In the news release, Bonta contends the panel's decision "to allow an agency to rest the Project's approval on a flawed environmental analysis where impacts are highly uncertain and controversial conflicts with Ninth Circuit and Supreme Court precedents."

Amazon opened the $200 million Amazon Air Regional Air Hub in the spring.

The sorting facility west of Victoria Avenue and south of Third Street in eastern San Bernardino will serve as the Southern California headquarters for the e-commerce giant's expansive freight network.

Airport officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment late Monday.

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