A Pandemic Report — POLA Leadership versus Residents Exposed to Pollution

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, port leaders and community residents have been living in two parallel universes, described in a document compiled by Andrea Hricko, a clinical professor emerita of environmental health at USC Keck School of Medicine, and Janet Gunter, communications administrator of San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United. On the one hand, “The Port of Los Angeles has seen huge increases in the number of cargo ships trying to unload goods for U.S. consumers,” but there are also impacts on health. “Emissions in port communities are up dramatically during the past year, according to regulators, who predict more illness and deaths from the idling ships,” which the port routinely ignores or minimizes. Indeed, when invited to respond to this document, port staff explicitly declined to comment, and none of the five port commissioners responded. (Community activist Peter Warren, with the San Pedro & Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, was more responsive.)

But ignoring or minimizing the health impacts doesn’t make them go away. Random Lengths News is web-publishing the document, which contains more than 40 links, vividly demonstrating the vast disconnect between the triumphal tone of port leadership and the lived reality of community residents, with contrasting quotes from POLA leadership and the viewpoints of residents and environmental advocates presented chronologically from December 2020 through February 2022.

Especially jarring is the fact that Executive Director Gene Seroka received a number of awards, both international and local, while the port did virtually nothing about the extra pollution, except to shut down vital monitoring.

In Oct. 2021, when President Joe Biden placed POLA in the national spotlight, announcing support for opening the port 24/7, E&E News provided a big-picture view of how the port’s pandemic performance echoes its long-term drift. The report first highlights two critical comments:

Dr. Afif El-Hasan, an Orange County pediatrician and volunteer with the American Lung Association, said: “there was no acknowledgment for anything except the economy.’’ An Air Quality Management District spokesperson added: “In the long-term South Coast AQMD believes the 24-hour operation will result in increased throughput/emissions potentially offsetting the nighttime and lower congestion benefits.”

Then it gives POLA’s side:

The port has taken steps to address air emissions, including clean air action plans and seeking to fully implement a Clean Trucks Program to cut down on diesel PM and other emissions, according to an article on the 24/7 policy. Gene Seroka added: “That conversation with the community … NGOs and environmental groups is ongoing every day here at the port.”

Before widening the historical lens:

The two ports “have a history of reducing emissions through implementation of their Clean Air Action Plans,” an AQMD spokesperson added, “however progress has stalled over the past decade, right when emission reductions have needed to accelerate.” Adrian Martinez with Earthjustice added: “… the ports have been coasting on environmental success they had a decade and a half ago.”

Further underscoring the disconnect, Peter Warren noted, “When the cargo goes up … they report on their cargo improvements year to year, and month over the previous year’s month. With emissions, they report on improvements from 15 years ago. They wouldn’t do that for cargo. Why are they doing that with emissions?”

On top of that, they’re charging $10 or $20 per container (depending on size) for their clean air container fees, “when it ought to be closer to $200. They’re raising a pittance,” Warren said. Per-container shipping costs have skyrocketed, “from about three or five thousand, now it’s fifteen to seventeen thousand, and for that, they pay a $20 fee? That’s ridiculous!”

More recently, in January 2022, the report notes, U.S. DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured the ports and said, “One of the reasons why Christmas was not canceled is that the Ports of LA and Long Beach moved records levels of goods… this Holiday season,” while at the same time, LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn responded, saying, “While the rest of the country counts on our ports to make sure their flatscreen TV is in stock for Christmas, the communities I represent bear the burden of the congestion, the air pollution.”

Read the full report here. Click here to download the pdf version of Hricko’s and Gunter’s report, Living in Two Parallel Universes.