Great Progress, But Much Yet To Be Done

Port/Environmental Year In Review

By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor

In 2010, the end of a decade of unprecedented environmental justice struggles in and around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach saw two contrasting storylines in sharp focus ― one of breakthrough progress and one of continued resistance ― with plenty of mixtures between the two in between.

On the side of breakthrough progress, POLA has taken on a leadership position on the clean trucks front, defending its Clean Trucks Program in federal court and advocating before Congress (more on that shortly.)

But on the side of resistance, POLA fought the China Shipping plaintiffs in arbitration to defeat a study plan that would have established the foundation for ongoing aesthetic mitigation funding and projects indefinitely into the future. In between, there was waterfront development progress in both Wilmington and San Pedro, with a mix of missed opportunities and things to like.

The two China Shipping homeowner group plaintiffs filed for arbitration on the last day of 2009, claiming that POLA acted improperly in rejecting a proposed mitigation study. As the hearing date approached in the summer, we ran a detailed story about the origins of the conflict in the China Shipping lawsuit and settlement, as well as the arguments mounted on both sides.

“[The] mitigation of aesthetic impacts remains arbitrary, haphazard and severely limited by the Port of Los Angeles’ refusal to document off-Port aesthetic impacts (blight), the groups charge,” Random Lengths News reported.

We later reported on the arbitration hearing itself, despite being excluded from it by law. In the end, the judge ruled in favor of the port, despite expressed misgivings about the substance of the port's position, because controlling law gives extreme deference to a government agency in such cases.

We also did a major story on the history and potential future of post-community relations as embodied in the Port Community Advisory Committee, established by Mayor Hahn in 2001, and given additional responsibilities by China Shipping Settlement. Although Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa also pledged to establish such a body during the 2001 primary campaign, the Port Community Advisory Committee's role has been routinely denigrated and disregarded throughout the Villaraigosa era.

Lastly, in a related off-shot, the $50 million TraPac Community Benefits Plan, approved in outline form on 3, 2008, was at long last on October 25.

In striking contrast, POLA's record in fighting for clean trucks and fair wages in 2010 was exemplary, both in federal court, where it fought side-by-side with the Natural Resources Defense Council, defending its Clean Truck Program against a lawsuit from the American Truckers Association, and in Congress, the media and elsewhere, advocating for national legislation that would both, strengthen its legal authority and create a much higher national standard for a level playing field that would benefit port communities and truckers nationwide. (An international agreement on low-sulfur ship fuel signed this year highlighted the promise such broad-scope measures can hold.) We followed both tracks with repeated stories and news briefs throughout the year. An unprecedented report on the nationwide problem of port truckers closed out the year.

In sharp contrast, POLB, carrying out the directives of Mayor Bob Foster's back-room deal with the American Truckers Association, was sued by Natural Resources Defense Council, both for bad environmental practices, and for good government violations of state law as well as it's own legal provisions.

While the South Coast Air Quality Management District announced plans to backstop the ports' Clean Air Action Plan in March, the port announced plans to update the Clean Air Action Plan in April. Activists were generally positive, but cited shortcomings and urged more comprehensive action. Despite reassuring words, they were mostly ignored, but final approval of the plans was delayed in October due to basely industry objections. The updates were later approved virtually unchanged.

Early in the year, the hosted a meeting on the ports’ health impacts, and the potential of using a more comprehensive, scientifically advanced evaluation approach. Local health officials are positive about the promise, but port officials remain opposed so far.

Waterfront development in both San Pedro and Wilmington showed progress in some ways, but persistent resistance in others. As noted by Peter Warren in a March 4 op-ed, the Port did a vanishing act when it came to the pledge of ongoing community involvement that was made when the Waterfront Development Plan was approved in September 2009. There were a series of community meetings to deal with specific aspects of the plan, which mostly avoided controversy.

But outside that process, a new proposal to site the battleship Iowa at the port revealed all the old chaos and lack of trusting and coherent relationships with the community, while Ports o' Call drifted ever further into limbo, while the lengthening Great Recession made the port's cruise terminal plans seem ever further out of touch with reality.

In Wilmington, long-delayed attention to the Wilmington Marinas and vicinity produced a welcome planning process for a major development proposal.

However, no funds are currently available for the most expensive part of this project. There was strong consensus at the first two workshops held, but Jesse Marquez, founder and executive director of the Coalition for a Safe Environment, emerged as a leading spokesperson for those not included in the process who advocate strongly for a much greater wetlands component. This is one of the few places left where significant wetlands acreage could be restored to compensate for thousands of acres lost.

There was better water-related news elsewhere in the Harbor Area, as we reported on a clean water project breaking ground at Peck Park in early April, and reported on the advancing restoration plans for Lake Machado later that month ― as well as in Harbor Living later that spring, a project literally decades in the making, and one of Janice Hahn's most significant accomplishments.

Reflecting the resurgence of local concerns about the oil industry, dating back to the GATX and Sansinena explosions of the 1970s, we reported on local activists meeting with Antonia Juhasz, author of The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry - And What We Must Do To Stop It. Our first issue of the year, as part of her project to nurture a global network of locally-based activist groups.

Our next issue focused on the opening of the 22nd Street Park, located on the old Unocal tank farm site, and the role played by local activists Bea Hunt Atwood in spearheading the fight that eventually removed that dangerous threat from our community. But remaining oil industry presence, in the form of 12-million gallon butane tanks on north Gaffey Street, returned to the spotlight following a major tragedy in Bruno in September, and we reported on a report prepared for the Northwest Neighborhood Council warning of the potential blast area that could impact most of the Harbor Area under a worst-case scenario.

Finally, Carson hosted an international conference of port and transportation justice activists from around the world in late October. The conference reaffirmed the global leadership role that Southern California activists, researchers and community members have played in advancing transportation-based environmental justice concerns that are now engaging communities on every continent on earth.

In short, it was year that underscored what great changes have occurred in the past decade, as well as how much more remains to be done.