When Janet Schaaf-Gunter looked out the window of San Pedro Bay last year, she saw so many cargo ships that it looked like Southern California on the verge of an invasion.
As a gray veil hung over the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Schaaf-Gunter worried about how much diesel pollutants she and her neighbors would inhale in the traffic jam.
“I look out the window and I have a view of the harbor, which is beautiful, and more beautiful in the past,” said Schaaf-Gunter, a member of San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United. “And I see dozens of ships that are along our shores sitting there vomiting. “
Schaaf-Gunter’s fitness considerations were on display recently when port officials announced an unprecedented increase in destructive emissions last year.
At the Port of Los Angeles, carcinogenic diesel waste increased 56% by 2020. Emissions of nitrogen oxides, a precursor to smog, increased by 54%, while lung-damaging sulfur oxides increased by 145%.
At the nearby Port of Long Beach, diesel particles exceed nitrogen oxides to the 35 Array and sulfur oxides to the 38 Array.
In addition to toxins from the air, it reports that greenhouse fuel emissions increased by as much as 39% in 2021 at the Port of Los Angeles and 35% at the Port of Long Beach.
The report outraged neighborhood activists and blank air advocates, who say ports are delivering on their promises to mitigate the effects of port activity on air quality.
For their part, ports say the thrust is an anomaly and that they have taken steps to lessen the effects of the long-term slowdown on fitness. Although the accumulation of pollutants has been substantial, officials said emissions are still well below mid-2000s degrees.
“We’ve been talking for years about how an effective supply chain means reduced emissions,” said Eugene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. “We now have a natural case to examine what an inefficient supply chain does to our environment. It’s a call to action for all of us in this profession. “
The increase in emissions has highlighted the unforeseen difficulties ports face in trying to reduce destructive emissions and greenhouse gases. While an initiative to develop the use of zero-emission electric trucks was thwarted due to the burden of the technology, ports also abandoned blank air systems for ships docked when a record heatwave threatened to overload the power grid in September.
Transoceanic vessels and shipping devices were largely to blame for the buildup of air pollutants in 2021.
Last year, either port saw a 16% increase in shipment movement as the COVID-19 pandemic boosted demand for e-commerce products. However, the oceanic vessels remained in San Pedro Bay while the crews struggled to stay awake.
It has also been hampered by COVID and pandemic-related precautions that have limited the number of crews transporting shipments from ships to trucks and trains. Further inland, some warehouses and distribution centers had also reached garage capacity and were suffering from labor shortages.
As of November 2021, 114 ships anchored or walking in San Pedro Bay waiting to dock.
“All of this led to a formula that nowhere comes close to optimal efficiency,” Seroka said.
Seroka and other port officials have described the delays and congestion of 2021 and insist that emissions are now returning to normal.
But they also say they have created new procedures that hope to avoid periods of heavy vessel traffic congestion.
Ships are now required to slow down and decrease steam to ports in periods of congestion, and they are also prohibited from sitting idle within 150 miles of shore to prevent ships from congregating outside the breakwater.
But Schaff-Gunter and others say such policy adjustments have been slow in coming. “While the port welcomes your resolution to, regardless, move the fleet of vomiting ships waiting for the terminal area 150 miles from our coast, this resolution was only taken after the local chain complained about the horrific situation,” he said.
The port complex emits about a hundred tons of nitrogen oxides per day, which exceeds the amount emitted daily by the area’s 6 million cars, making it the largest source of smog and pollutant-forming particles in Southern California, according to South Coast Air. According to CalEnviroScreen, an online tool that assesses environmental pollutants, the predominantly working-class Latino communities surrounding ports are resilient to the highest percentile of diesel particulate pollutants statewide.
But dual ports are also an economic behemoth and about 3 million jobs, according to officials. The complex serves as a gateway for approximately 40% of the country’s containerized cargo imports. (The Port of L. A. alone is the largest port in the Western Hemisphere, handling $294 billion in shipments in 2021. )
Even taking into account the increase in emissions in 2021, air pollutants in the port complex are still particularly below old levels. The main emission categories (diesel particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxides) declined dramatically between 2005 and 2010, as shipments shifted to lower sulfur fuels and older shipments were replaced by more effective shipping engines.
However, those innovations have slowed and emissions have remained strong over the past decade, a trend that has led some to doubt ports’ commitment to cleaner operations.
“Almost 20 years ago, local physician John Miller coined the term ‘diesel death zones,'” said Ed Avol, a professor of prevention at USC. “That’s what we still face in San Pedro, Wilmington, Carson and surrounding areas.
“The effect of physical activity on port emissions continues every day. It doesn’t stop. He doesn’t say, ‘Wow, we’re sorry. We perceive because of the chain of origin, you get a pass for that. ‘”The port is the administrator of the region. Yes, they work hard to create jobs and goods for the entire country. But they have also traditionally pledged to reduce their emissions. And I think that seemed to slip through his priorities. “
Port officials are quick to point out that they have been at the forefront of reducing pollutants from docked ships.
Historically, moored container ships have operated their auxiliary diesel engines to supply electrical power for lighting, air conditioning, refrigeration and other onboard devices. Faced with this diesel pollution, ports have installed infrastructure that allows ships to connect to the regional power grid when docked.
However, heat waves have strained the force network and created force emergencies across the state. These crises have confused efforts to use blank air systems at ports, officials say.
Last month, California’s worst heat wave on record in September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order encouraging ports to waive regulations requiring docked ships to connect. electrical overload.
However, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Electric, which supplies electric power to the Port of Los Angeles, has not asked the port to impede its plug policy during the recent heat wave, although it has issued a Flex Alert asking consumers to voluntarily save peak power hours.
“We had all the resources to meet their electric power needs,” DWP spokesman Joseph Ramallo said of the Port of Los Angeles.
Port officials said the scenario was incredibly confusing and that it was wrong on the energy-saving aspect.
“For those of us in Los Angeles, if it’s a hundred degrees in the San Fernando Valley, we’re cutting off the force to the Port of Los Angeles,” Seroka said. “The state of California doesn’t have enough power. to do everything we want and continue to circulate electricity in our hospitals and schools on high-temperature days. “
Diane Middleton, a member of the Port of Los Angeles Board of Commissioners, echoed this sentiment:
“What would you prefer, the air conditioning of the citizens of the San Fernando Valley or our plugged-in boats?”
Ports have also sought to reduce pollutants and greenhouse fuel emissions by switching to zero-emission shipping handling apparatus through 2030 and heavy-duty trucks through 2035.
But this transition turned out to be more complicated than expected.
Seroka said an initial bid for trucks capable of traveling a minimum of 25 miles emission-free generated a lackluster response.
“These truckers pay an average of $50,000 for their truck,” Seroka said. $450,000, and early prototypes of the hydrogen fuel mobile truck will likely charge twice as much. How are you going to grow this family business from a $50,000 rig to a half-million-dollar investment consistent with the truck? »
The California Air Resources Board, the state firm that regulates cellular pollution resources, adding cars and trucks, is comparing a proposal that would require trucking brands to sell an increasing number of zero-emission trucks in California between 2024 and 2035.
While state and port officials say they still hope to meet deadlines, some public fitness experts are concerned about the immediate consequences for children in the area, who are among the most vulnerable to contamination.
“Think about what’s going to happen 10 or 20 years from now, that’s smart,” Avol said. “It’s smart for us to think about that. But in the meantime, we’re literally sacrificing the fitness of the existing generation of kids, because they’ll grow up with the air that’s here now. “
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.
This content is not available due to your privacy preferences.