Source: U-T San Diego
Port cuts air pollution
6:02 P.M.NOV. 10, 2014
The Port of San Diego reduced greenhouse gas emissions from its ships and facilities by 42 percent between 2006 and 2012, and cut other pollutants by more than half during that time, the port is expected to announce today.
In addition to trimming climate pollutants, the port cut nitrogen oxides – a component of smog – by 50 percent, diesel particles by 75 percent, and sulfur dioxide by 94 percent.
Those pollutants are associated with asthma and other respiratory conditions, heart problems and cancer.
“It’s really great for our local community, because we’re reducing local pollutants that have health impacts,” said Cody Hooven, a senior environmental specialist for the port. “Concurrently, we’re also reducing greenhouse emissions, which are important globally.”
About 70 percent of San Diego’s air emissions come from mobile sources, including planes, trains, trucks cars and boats, said Bob Kard, air pollution control officer for the San Diego Air Pollution Control District.
“The more everyone does in reducing mobile source emissions, the better off we’re going to be,” he said.
The drop in emissions came about through a combination of state air pollution rules, local programs and some unexpected help from the recession, which eased pollution by dampening port activity.
The port based its comparison on 2006, the year when it began an outreach effort among its tenants and other businesses to identify ways to reduce pollution. That year became the baseline for future comparisons, Hooven said.
The six years that followed ushered in changes that helped trim pollutants from cruise ships, freighters, trucks and other equipment at the port.
“Obviously that’s good news for workers at the waterfront as well as residents downwind,” said Joy Williams, research director for the Environmental Health Coalition, a nonprofit that addresses public health issues in San Diego. “That is good for cleaner technologies.”
Some of those changes were mandated by the state Air Resources Board, which laid out steps that ports must take to cut diesel exhaust and convert to clean energy sources.
For instance, its 2009 rules that required cleaner fuels for ocean going ships cut the amount of sulfur dioxide they emitted in San Diego by 94 percent and trimmed particulates by 89 percent, according to an emissions inventory prepared by the port.
State-ordered engine upgrades on harbor craft also drove the transition to cleaner vessels.
In some cases, though, the Port of San Diego raised the bar for ships and tenants at its facilities.
The biggest recent investment was “shore power,” the infrastructure that allows visiting ships to hook up to electrical sources at dock, instead of idling indefinitely in port. By getting power from the grid rather than from diesel engines, the ships reduced diesel exhaust and other emissions.
Although the state required ports to switch to shore power by 2014, the port began its conversion in 2011, investing $7.1 million to provide that service at its cruise ship terminal.
And it spent $4.25 million to install it at the 10th Avenue Marine Terminal, using a $2.4 million grant from the Air Pollution Control District to complete that project.
“We applied for a grant and installed shore power three years before the regulation took effect, and we worked with the shipping line to make sure they supported us in that effort, Hooven said.
Those improvements reduced emissions by about 11 percent, the report stated.
In another case, the state set emissions standards for trucks on the waterfront, and required the port to notify regulators if the vehicles didn’t meet those standards. In 2011, however, the port’s board of commissioners took that a step further.
“In January 2011 the board decided that if the trucks didn’t meet our standards we wouldn’t let them do business,” Hooven said. “We’re now 100 percent compliant.”
Some simple measures also led to substantial improvements. New rules required ships to limit their speed in the harbor to ensure optimal fuel efficiency. That reduced emissions by roughly 10 percent, according to the report.
Port tenants also took action to reduce pollution, and the local air district provided grants to speed those improvements.
The cargo company Terminal Lift switched from diesel to electric power for its trucks and heavy equipment, Hooven said. Pacific Tug converted its boats to shore power, reducing their exhaust.
“We’ve spent a lot of grant dollars swapping out engines for everything from trucks coming up from the border to tugboats,” said Andy Hamilton, an air quality specialist at the air district. “In some cases we funded adding pollution control equipment to existing engines. In other cases we gave them funds to replace entirely whole engines.”
Part of the improvement came from temporary pollution relief during the recession – one of the few welcome impacts of the economic downturn. Hooven said the port will be conscious of that factor as San Diego’s economy picks up.
“So we don’t want to sit back and ride on our success,” she said. “We want to keep going with different programs to reduce these emissions.”
“We applied for a grant and installed shore power three years before the regulation took effect, and we worked with the shipping line to make sure they supported us in that effort, Hooven said.
Those improvements reduced emissions by about 11 percent, the report stated.
In another case, the state set emissions standards for trucks on the waterfront, and required the port to notify regulators if the vehicles didn’t meet those standards. In 2011, however, the port’s board of commissioners took that a step further.
“In January 2011 the board decided that if the trucks didn’t meet our standards we wouldn’t let them do business,” Hooven said. “We’re now 100 percent compliant.”
Some simple measures also led to substantial improvements. New rules required ships to limit their speed in the harbor to ensure optimal fuel efficiency. That reduced emissions by roughly 10 percent, according to the report.
Port tenants also took action to reduce pollution, and the local air district provided grants to speed those improvements.
The cargo company Terminal Lift switched from diesel to electric power for its trucks and heavy equipment, Hooven said. Pacific Tug converted its boats to shore power, reducing their exhaust.
“We’ve spent a lot of grant dollars swapping out engines for everything from trucks coming up from the border to tugboats,” said Andy Hamilton, an air quality specialist at the air district. “In some cases we funded adding pollution control equipment to existing engines. In other cases we gave them funds to replace entirely whole engines.”
Part of the improvement came from temporary pollution relief during the recession – one of the few welcome impacts of the economic downturn. Hooven said the port will be conscious of that factor as San Diego’s economy picks up.
“So we don’t want to sit back and ride on our success,” she said. “We want to keep going with different programs to reduce these emissions.”