State Wants Cleaner Air at Ports
By Kristopher Hanson
LONG BEACH — Diesel pollution emitted by big-rig trucks and ships at California’s busiest ports would be cut 75 percent by 2014 under new regulations announced Wednesday by state air-quality officials.
The regulations, expected to be approved Friday by the California Air Resources Board, would phase out thousands of older, smog- producing trucks that serve the state’s 14 busiest seaports, as well as 11 rail yards.
Cargo and cruise ships calling at ports from Long Beach to Oakland would have to reduce smog-forming emissions and diesel particulate matter 50 percent by 2014, and 80 percent by 2020.
“Residents from San Pedro to Oakland will breathe easier as a result of our aggressive actions to clean up diesel emissions from ports throughout the state,” Mary Nichols, who chairs the board, said at a news conference in Long Beach.
If approved, the rules would not supersede the tougher truck- emissions regulations adopted last month for the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
“We set the minimums, and local communities can go further, faster,” Nichols said. “There’s (legal) provisions that allow local communities to go faster.”
The commissions governing the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors have approved a plan that requires all trucks to meet 2007 emission standards by 2012.
The state’s proposed rules give haulers until 2014 to meet emissions standards. But they also apply the regulation to California’s largest rail yards, which are magnets for diesel trucks serving port marine terminals.
Health studies show that communities near busy ports and rail yards suffer from disproportionately high asthma and heart-disease rates.
Diesel soot has also been linked to increased risk for lung and throat cancer.
“This is the No. 1 one health challenge that Southern California faces,” said Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster.
Officials estimate that it will cost the trucking industry $3billion to replace or retrofit aging tractor-trailers, and they plan to offer several hundred million dollars in bonds and grants to ease the transition.
On ship emissions, the new rules require container ships, cruise ships and refrigerated cargo ships, while docked in port, to turn off their diesel-burning auxiliary engines and use cleaner alternative power sources such as electricity.
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