By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, comprising the busiest U.S. cargo complex, launched a landmark clean-air program on Wednesday banning some 2,000 older trucks blamed for half the pollution spewed by the ports' diesel haulers.
The port complex ranks as the biggest air pollution source in SOUTHERN (SO.NY)California. Heavy-duty trucks contribute well over a third of the ports' overall diesel exhaust emissions and are the most visible to local residents, the ports have said.
The two adjacent seaports, which together account for 40 percent of all U.S. container traffic, instituted the ban on pre-1989 model-year diesel trucks as part of larger plans to slash air pollutants to below-2001 levels in five years.
Those plans were crucial to paving the way for port expansions long stalled over concerns about pollution-linked illnesses in nearby communities.
The nearly 17,000 trucks that ply the roads into and out of the ports daily produce more smog and soot than all 6 million cars in the region and cause 1,200 premature deaths annually, according to the California Air Resources Board.
Asthma rates among children living in the vicinity are double the national average, while dock workers and truck drivers face significantly higher risks of lung and throat cancer, various studies have shown.
The ban on pre-1989 trucks immediately excludes more than 2,000 vehicles -- roughly 14 percent of the ports' combined fleet of diesel haulers -- that account for about half of the area's total truck pollution, port officials say.
Supporters say scrapping those 2,000-plus trucks will remove more than 350 tons of harmful emissions.
"The ports will see a 50 percent reduction (in truck emissions) overnight," said Jessica Lass, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which helped formulate the clean-air plans after suing the ports to block expansion until public health issues were addressed.
Emissions will be further reduced in 2012 when the ban is extended to all trucks built before 2007.
Port officials say other major U.S. shipping centers will eventually follow Long Beach and Los Angeles' efforts.
Despite weeks of concern about a possible slowdown in cargo pickups and deliveries at the outset of the program, both ports said they had registered about 15,000 trucks on time, more than enough to keep terminal traffic flowing smoothly.
The trucking industry supports the clean-air effort but has mounted a legal challenge to other aspects of the Los Angeles port program that require trucks to be operated by company concessions which hire the drivers as employees.
Most truckers already serving the ports are independent owner-operators, many of whom would find it difficult to meet the new concession regulations and related financial requirements alone.
The American Trucking Association also disputes the assertion that trucks account for over a third of the ports' air pollution. They say trucks generate just 10 percent of emissions, with most of the rest coming from ships and harbor craft and cargo-handling equipment.
(Editing by Brian Moss)
