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L.A. City Council Throws Support Behind Port Treaty

Posted on: Monday, 6 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By David Zahniser COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to urge the U.S. Senate to sign an international treaty that would enable ports throughout North America to reduce the level of sulfur emissions given off by diesel-powered container ships.

On a 10-0 vote, the council took a position in favor of the treaty after hearing support for it from business leaders, union members and environmentalists.

Saying the treaty would reduce sulfur and particulate emissions from ships in North America by 18 percent, Councilwoman Janice Hahn said the United States is overdue in joining 30 other nations that have already signed the treaty.

"Port pollution is affecting the quality of life for people around the ports, and we're going to do something about it," she said.

Participation in the treaty could allow the United States to create a "sulfur emissions control area" in the Harbor Area within two to three years, once the federal government has submitted a petition to the International Maritime Association, said T.L. Garrett, vice president of the Pacific Shipping Maritime Association.

Hahn took pains to secure an endorsement of the treaty from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, whose members have questioned whether there is a link between air pollution at the port and cancer cases in the work force.

"I've gone to 15 or 20 funerals over the years, and the majority of them were because of cancer," said David Arian, former president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13. "We've never done an accurate study on why."

Sulfur emissions control areas already have been approved in Europe for shipping routes in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. In Los Angeles, the Board of Harbor Commissioners gave a nod toward the concept of a control area last month, requiring ships operated by P&O Nedlloyd to rely on low-sulfur fuel when running their main and auxiliary engines within 40 nautical miles of the port.

Because the port is such a powerhouse in international trade, it should be able to convince U.S. senators that such an area is needed for all of the nation's ports, harbor commission President S. David Freeman said.

"If they want more and more tennis shoes coming through this port, they better support this treaty," he said. "Because we're not going to grow unless we grow green."

Source: Daily Breeze

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