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  - Health costs to Californians, so far this year, of port related pollution in California.
The Ports of LA  Long Beach Clean Air Action Plan passed in November 2006, and 1500 clean trucks service the ports.
Port Pollution Facts
  • In Long Beach, 20% of children under 17 have been diagnosed with asthma - nearly twice the national average.
  • $67 million: The cost of respiratory problems associated with ports in CA.
  • Diesel Exhaust is responsible for 84% of the cancer risk from air pollution in the Southern California Air Basin.
  • $19 BILLION: Cost on health system due to port pollution. average.
  • Each day the Port of LA emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.
  • 2,400 - Estimated number of premature deaths caused by diesel emissions.
  • 800,000: Number of children that pollution reduction could save from lung disease.
  • Each day the Port of Los Angeles emits over 30 tons of NOx, while a half a million cars emits less than 24 tons and the average power plant emits less than 5 tons.

NEW BILL TARGETS SULFUR POLLUTION
NEW BILL TARGETS SULFUR POLLUTION

Long Beach Press Telegram:

LONG BEACH - Efforts to clean up air pollution in the largely unregulated steamship industry have moved from local boardrooms to Capitol Hill in recent months, with California's two veteran senators leading the way with a new federal bill.

The "Marine Vessel Emissions Reduction Act of 2007," authored by Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, seeks to reduce the sulfur content of fuel used by marine vessels in or near America's ports.

To save costs on trans-oceanic voyages, shipping companies burn a low-grade diesel known as "bunker fuel." The fuel is bottom-of-the-barrel and contains an average sulfur content of 27,000 parts-per-million (ppm).

By comparison, diesel used in cars and trucks in the United States, by law, can have a sulfur content no higher than 15 ppm.

Studies link diesel emission byproducts, which include sulfur oxides (SoX), nitrogen oxides (NoX) and diesel particulate matter (DPM), to higher rates of cancer, heart disease and asthma.

In the Los Angeles area, home to the nation's largest seaport, bunker fuel burned by ships is responsible for some 30 tons of SoX emissions each day - more than 50 percent of the region's sulfur oxide pollution.

The Boxer/Feinstein bill would require ships to burn fuel with a sulfur content no higher than 1,000 ppm beginning in 2010, and require that ships begin using cleaner-burning engines in 2012.

It's the latest effort by public officials - under pressure from residents and environmental organizations - to clamp down on shipping industry pollution.

Late last year, harbor commissioners in Long Beach and Los Angeles adopted an aggressive policy offering incentives to freight carriers agreeing to use cleaner fuels, adopt shoreside electricity and reduce speeds when entering the local port complex.

Boxer, who chairs the powerful Environment and Public Works Committee in Washington, has stated publicly that she will push for aggressive environmental reforms at U.S. seaports.

Currently, she's lobbying for support from fellow lawmakers and the public, with the eventual goal of taking the bill to President Bush's desk.

To further the effort, Boxer's staff and the South Coast Air Quality Management District are hosting a public forum on the bill at 10 a.m. Aug. 9 at Port of Los Angeles Administration Headquarters, 425 S. Palos Verdes Drive in San Pedro.

Petition for truck plan

Harbor commissioners in Long Beach were presented with more than 11,000 signatures from local residents and workers at Monday's board meeting in support of a highly controversial harbor trucking plan.

Petition signees support a proposal to restrict access to marine terminals to trucking firms with employee drivers and the greenest vehicle fleets.

Commissioners in both ports, who control marine terminals through their power as waterfront property landlords, are seeking to reduce harmful diesel emissions caused by port trucks by holding motor carriers - and not drivers - responsible for maintaining green vehicle fleets.

Vehemently opposed by the trucking industry, which has threatened to sue if it's enacted, the plan as written would affect some 16,000 port-area truckers.

Signatures were gathered in recent weeks by the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports and the Communities for Clean Ports.

Monday's signature dump was the latest in a series of coordinated public actions designed to sway board members for and against the drayage plan.

Port of Long Beach spokesman Art Wong, who's been on the job a decade, can't remember an issue generating as much public response as the trucking plan, which commissioners hope to vote on later this year.

"We've received more e-mail and letters and comments to this than any (issue) I can remember," Wong said. "There's probably a vault back there full of these comments."

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