A very good reminder of the huge role our ocean ports play in the commerce of the country and our state, which while generating quite a bit of pollution, appears able and willing to address that concern, which is a very good thing.
Daniel Weintraub: Ports' growth, environment collide in Los Angeles
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, October 14, 2007
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be torn over what to do about the future of Southern California's booming ports, but the ports' managers are preparing to tackle the congestion and pollution in their midst without him.
Although the ports are probably an afterthought to most of the state's 38 million residents, the adjacent harbors of Los Angeles and Long Beach are like a beating heart through which much of California's economic lifeblood flows.
The ports are the two busiest container seaports in the United States, accounting for more than 40 percent of all containerized cargo moving into and out of the country. Taken together, the two ports are the fifth-busiest in the world. More than $260 billion a year in trade moves through their docks.
They are also growing rapidly. Since 2001, the number of cargo containers moving through the ports has nearly doubled, and this year will probably reach 10 million for the first time, measured in the equivalent of 20-foot containers, the international standard. Business is expected to double again by 2020.
All of that trade generates jobs and wealth, not only for those who work in the ports but for people throughout California who import or export goods. But there is a downside.
Those goods must travel by train, truck and ship, and they must be moved around the ports with heavy equipment. The resulting traffic and air pollution are literally choking the ports' neighbors. The ports produce nearly 2,000 tons of diesel particulate matter every year, and 35,000 tons of nitrogen-oxide, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the region's air pollution. A study by the California Air Resources Board last year concluded that pollution from the state's ports, including Oakland, causes 2,400 premature deaths annually.
