Cleaning the Ports of L.A.

Imagine waking up and throwing open your bedroom window for a breath of fresh air, only to find black soot blanketing the sill and a yellow-brown haze hanging in the sky. Each day, neighbors of the Port of Los Angeles breathe air polluted by toxic diesel exhaust emitted from transportation and cargo-handling equipment that serves the nation’s busiest port. All this pollution puts them at higher risk for cancer and respiratory illnesses such as asthma and bronchitis.

When the port announced, in 2003, expansion plans at the TraPac container shipping terminal, NRDC stepped in. First NRDC worked with neighborhood groups to submit comments to the port concerning TraPac's environmental impact statement. Next NRDC staff attorneys successfully urged local officials not to greenlight the project unless it used cleaner technologies. NRDC and 16 coalition partners -- many of them local grassroots organizations -- also negotiated with the port and the Los Angeles City Council to ensure that the docks, which had fallen behind on clean air programs geared to reduce diesel pollution, would get back on track. Finally the port agreed to create a five-year trust fund linked to growth: the more cargo shipped through the docks, the more money it must set aside (up to $50 million) to install air filtration systems and double-paned windows in schools around the towns of San Pedro and Wilmington and to fund studies on the impact moving freight has on local health. With these conditions in place, TraPac's expansion will go forward later this year.