John Petro

Cleaning up the Port of Los Angeles: Environmental justice for port communities

Last week I wrote about the Port of Los Angeles’ Clean Truck Program and how it will improve labor conditions for port truck drivers. The program is part of a larger initiative by the port to improve the air quality in the region called the Clear Air Action Plan (CAAP). Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa will be in New York City on October 14th to discuss this innovative plan at DMI’s next Marketplace of Ideas event.

The CAAP is a joint effort by the neighboring Port of Los Angles and Port of Long Beach to reduce emissions from every source of pollutants at the port. If the plan is successful, port-related air pollution, the largest fixed source of pollution in the region, will be reduced by 45% by 2011.

The plan will reduce emission from all port-related sources: oceangoing ships, diesel trucks, cargo handling equipment, harbor craft, and rail locomotives. Under the plan, ships burn cleaner fuel, reduce their speed when close to shore, and use shore power when docked at port. Dirty diesel trucks are banned. All locomotives, harbor craft, and cargo equipment will utilize the cleanest technology, either through new purchases or retrofitting old machines.

While oceangoing ships are the largest polluters at the ports, reducing the emissions of diesel trucks is as important, if not more important to the communities that surround the ports.

“Port trucks travel through dense urban areas, often driving through residential neighborhoods near schools and parks. The impact, therefore, of truck-related pollutants is significantly greater, because of the heightened exposure rates. In other words, a ton of DPM [diesel particulate matter] emitted by a truck on a residential street in South Los Angeles is significantly more deadly than a ton of DMP emitted by a ship twenty miles offshore [click here for report]”

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Posted at 11:54 AM, Oct 06, 2008 in Environmental Justice
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