The volume of cargo ships entering the Port of Los Angeles is at an all-time high, and the port hasn’t been shy about celebrating — a June 10 press release bragged about becoming “the first port in the Western Hemisphere to process 10 million container units in a 12-month period.” But the port didn’t make a peep one month earlier when it was time to measure pollutants, not profits. It’s not that the environmental figures were underpublicized or talked down. Without any explanation at all, the port simply stopped reporting emissions from the Source-Dominated Air Pollution Monitoring Site on Pier 300 — the spot where the port, in more talkative times, has repeatedly said “is expected to have the highest exposure to emissions from Port operations, as it is in direct proximity to terminal operators which use a large number of diesel engine sources.”
Andrea Hricko, USC professor emerita of public health, was the lead author of a letter bringing this to the attention of the Harbor Commission, port staff and the two relevant government oversight agencies, the California Air Resources Board and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. She was joined by representatives of San Pedro & Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United, Inc., West Long Beach Association, Coalition For A Safe Environment, Earthjustice, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, Sierra Club, Community Dreams Wilmington, NAACP, San Pedro-Wilmington Branch, California Kids IAQ, Wilmington and EMeRGE, Wilmington. Hricko’s efforts to get an explanation from staff have been fruitless, even with a public records act request.
“The volume of cargo ships entering the port is at an all-time high,” Hricko noted. “It is definitely of concern that the port has chosen to suspend the monitoring station that is at the ‘center of Port operations’ at exactly the same time when cargo volume and ship calls at the Port of Los Angeles are at record highs. We note that the Port of Los Angeles has issued six press releases in 2021 alone touting its record cargo volumes.”
She went on to note that “A fact sheet by the California Air Resources Board is attached documenting that up to 40 ships at a time have been seen anchoring in the San Pedro Bay Ports, raising concerns about increased pollution.” That fact sheet shows a 47% increase in TEU volume from March 2019 to March 2021. It estimated health disbenefits of 20 excess deaths a year in the South Coast Air Basin.
The letter called for the immediate reinstatement of the Source-Dominated station, along with the continued monitoring of black carbon as a marker for diesel emissions at the Wilmington and San Pedro monitoring sites, as well as continued posting on the Clean Air Action Plan website.