The Port of Long Beach’s clean-air efforts are achieving across-the-board reductions in air pollution, including a 72 percent decline in diesel particulates, according to a recent study that reports the fourth straight year of pollution reductions from the ships, trucks, locomotives, forklifts, tugboats and other equipment that move cargo at the port. The continued phasing out of the oldest trucks was among the primary factors contributing to the air quality improvements, according to the port-funded study.
The study showed that from 2005 to 2010, all of the key air pollutants from port-related sources were reduced; in addition to diesel particulates, sulfur oxides were cut by 73 percent, smog-forming nitrogen oxides lessened by 46 percent, and greenhouse gases reduced by 18 percent. The study’s results were reviewed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
“We’re seeing the benefits of the hard work by the port and the entire goods movement industry to reduce air pollution and to be better neighbors to the community,” says Susan Anderson Wise, Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners president. “And we’re not finished. We are continually exploring new practices and technologies to improve air quality in the harbor to benefit the entire region.”
