Adrian Martinez's Blog: The Media and the Environment tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2009:/blogs/amartinez//138 2009-05-07T21:21:58Z Movable Type Enterprise 1.52 Rush for Clean Air In Long Beach tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2009:/blogs/amartinez//138.3222 2009-04-28T00:48:56Z 2009-05-07T21:21:58Z Adrian Martinez I have always admired the Port of Long Beach's award winning media outreach team. They were recently awarded several prestigious honors at the "Excellence in Communication" awards hosted by the California Association of Public Information Officials (CAPIO). Their media team is especially effective at promoting Port of Long Beach operations. While some components of the port are easy to promote -- e.g. jobs, its position as one of the busiest ports in the world, and several other key components of its commerce -- there are several aspects of its operations that are hard to spin. Specifically, the immense public health impacts resulting from the ports' operations are a hard pill to swallow. For example, according to CARB's estimates, approximately 10 people die prematurely from pollution associated with the ports and good movement system each day in California (approximately 3,700 premature deaths from fine particulate matter from goods movement in 2005). Keeping people distracted from this hard fact is not an easy task. And, this recent award shows the Port of Long Beach's cunning skill at doing so.   

Now, I am not going to dispute that this is a different port than the one residents, NRDC, the Coalition for Clean Air, California Earth Corp, and several others went up against in 2004 when it tried to present a completely inadequate expansion plan (i.e. Pier J) that did little to anything to mitigate the serious impacts on residents in Long Beach and the region in general. Under the leadership of the Boards of Harbor Commissioners, the ports have come a long way, but this movement only resulted because the social imperative is so great. 

Environmentalists and community advocates are often criticized by goods movement industry lobbyists for "changing the goal line" in demanding too much protection for the public from deadly port pollution. This football analogy must be a bullet point on some set of widely distributed media talking points because I hear it at least once a month from different people. However, these cries from industry and the ports fail to incorporate the fact that the ports just entered into the stadium. Even though, getting the ports into the stadium was a huge effort full of blood, sweat, and tears, they have not even fielded the ball yet. The work needed to prevent the approximately 10 people dying prematurely each day is immense. And, it is my job to push the ports and other goods movement polluters to reduce that impact. The goal line is air that meets federal clean air standards, and until the ports and industry are willing to come to the table to discuss meeting that goal, we will continue to push until that goal is a reality. There has been recent movement to achieving clean air by the ports, but we are far from a place where harbor area residents will breathe clean air.      

This is all relevant because the Port of Long Beach recently approved the Middle Harbor Development Project. Surely, proponents of this project will likely send their media attack dogs after us for appealing this project to elected leaders on the Long Beach City Council. They will likely say we hate puppies and have other horrible attributes. This tactic will be designed to distract from the substance of the appeal. We are simply asking that the port protect public health, reduce its impacts in the harbor area and beyond, and take the challenges of global warming more seriously. The fact of the matter is that the port has a lot more work ahead of it to reduce its immense impacts. Our goal is not to delay this project, but rather to make it better. Instead of relying on its award-winning media team to fight us in this effort, we hope the commission and port staff will work with us to create a win-win solution. I invite the port to work with us to get a first down.    

]]> No Breathing in the Harbor tag:switchboard.nrdc.org,2008:/blogs/amartinez//138.1984 2008-10-21T20:45:11Z 2008-10-31T17:30:02Z Adrian Martinez In a slick campaign-style advertisement, the operators at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles ran a Proposition 65 notice in the Los Angeles Times last week.  Proposition 65 is a California law that protects residents from toxic substances, and the agreement on the notices was struck with the Attorney General's office.  The notice shows an ominous black mass covering the majority of the harbor area and provides a "Port Exhaust Warning."  The Notice further states "Chemicals in diesel exhaust are known by the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.  Operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are sources of diesel exhaust in the greater Los Angeles area."  Advocates and health experts have been pushing this issue for a long time, and the polluting tenants at the ports are finally telling people the truth about their polluting operations.  The website has several ads, including one that shows a ship and states "Change is in the Air."  Well, to be honest, I'm not so sure change is in the air.  Actually, the diesel exhaust coming from these port operations contains over 40 toxic air contaminants, including benzene, arsenic, and formaldehyde, that is in the air.  However, we hope that as clean up programs like the clean trucks programs are implemented, there will be true change in the air.   

In a strange portion of the website, it talks about what people can do to take action.  The section recommends that people monitor various websites (it does not provide a link to these websites-by the way, here is SCAQMD's Air Monitoring Website) to see if particulate matter levels are high.  If there are high levels of pollution, which happens frequently in the harbor area, it then lists a whole host of things people should do (e.g. keep windows closed, exercise indoors at a shopping mall or gym, vacuum with HEPA filters).  The interesting thing about the website is that it does not encourage people to take action by telling the ports and their polluting tenants what actions the polluters should be taking.  For example, maybe when people want to go for walks and play outdoors, they could recommend that shipping companies take their ships and unload them indoor at malls or at a gymnasium.  Well, enough of the sarcasm-I am going to take the liberty of taking action in a different way than the ways suggested by the polluting tenants at the ports.   

Now, here is a list of action items for these polluting port actors.

  • Quit opposing regulations and other programs that will clean up our air and protect public health such as the California Air Resources Board ship rules aimed at cleaning up toxic ship pollution;
  • Shipping companies need to use cleaner fuels and quit dragging their feet;
  • Instead of building near-dock rail facilities, take cargo right off the docks and load it onto trains;
  • Support the port of Los Angeles clean trucks program and help bring the rapid conversion to an all-electric port truck fleet; and
  • Support cleaner transportation systems like electrified rail that runs on renewable energy.

These are just a few suggestions, and my colleagues and I have many more.  But for now, we're going to continue to push the ports and their polluting tenants until they have no need for a Proposition 65 warning.    

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