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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.

EPA Pressured to Cut Ship Pollution
EPA Pressured to Cut Ship Pollution


Diesel pollution spewed from the world's largest ships is increasing in U.S.ports and coastal areas even as regulators rein in car and truck emissions.

Associated Press
By Rita Beamish

Some members of Congress and local regulators are demanding that the Bush administration quickly curtail the ship pollutants to protect health instead of waiting for other countries to agree to take action.

The Environmental Protection Agency decided to hold off on its own rules for oceangoing vessels while trying to push its standards through the U.N. International Maritime Organization. After that body acts, EPA plans to issue its regulations next year.

That's too long, some lawmakers and environmental advocates say. Legislation pending in Congress would require that the EPA act on its own to keep the growing shipping industry from eroding gains made in reducing diesel emissions from vehicles.

"The legislation is needed because marine vessels are the largest uncontrolled source of air pollution in many areas of the country, causing at least 2,000 to 5,000 premature deaths every year across the country," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, a Southern California air regulatory board.

His remarks were in testimony prepared for a hearing Thursday before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of his testimony.

The large ocean vessels "will soon be the last bastion of dirty diesel engines," now that EPA is concluding pollution-reduction rules for locomotives and smaller ships like tugboats, Richard Kassel, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in prepared testimony.

At seaports across the country, the massive ship engines burn diesel that is 1,800 times dirtier than the U.S. norm for trucks.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the committee chairwoman, said international action could help, but is taking too long.

"We can't afford to give special interests more opportunities to weaken the rules, and children with asthma can't afford to wait," she said Wednesday.

Maritime diesel emissions cause an estimated 60,000 premature deaths a year worldwide, according to a peer-reviewed study by James Corbett, a freight transportation expert at the University of Delaware.

EPA proposes that the global body adopt steep reductions in hazardous diesel emissions, similar to the congressional proposal. Whatever the outcome, the U.S. agency ultimately will regulate as it sees fit to protect U.S. seaports, said Margo Oge, director of EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

Oge and Don O'Hare, vice president of the World Shipping Council, an Washington-based industry group, both said the international body made good progress last week with a subcommittee recommendation on one kind of emission reduction. It would apply just to new ships, not the 50,000 older ships currently in service.

O'Hare's group supports EPA's proposals for a global, rather than unilateral, standard.

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