L.A., Long Beach update clean air plan
The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said Wednesday they are revising their San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan (CAAP) adopted in 2006 to set more aggressive goals for curbing port-related air pollution over the next decade.
The ports said they are on track to meet or exceed air pollution-reduction objectives in the original plan’s five-year timeline.
Their new long-term goals include an 85 percent reduction in cancer risk from port-related diesel pollution by 2020.
“To achieve all this, the CAAP will rely on a mix of existing technologies and strategies for the near term, technological advances that have yet to be identified to meet the long-term goals, and ongoing regulatory initiatives at the state, federal and international levels,” the ports said in a statement.
The ports said they were confident new solutions would be created to help meet the new goals “given the long-term trend for innovation in clean-air technology and the ports' multimillion-dollar investments in a technology advancement program.”
They released a draft of the plan, a 214-page document, Wednesday.
The document said the ports have found the most effective combination of implementation strategies includes a mix of lease requirements, tariff changes, port-funded incentives, grants, voluntary efforts, and what it called an “ultimate backstop” of requirements imposed by regulatory agencies.
“This combination provides redundancy in implementing the source-specific performance standards should any one of the other specific strategies fail to be applied,” the plan says.
The ports said they will accept comments over a 30-day period that ends May 7. Comments can be emailed to[email protected].
The ports have also scheduled two public meetings for comments:
' April 21, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles Harbor, 601 S. Palos Verdes St.
' April 27, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) at Long Beach City Council Chambers, 333 W. Ocean Blvd.
The Long Beach and Los Angeles boards of harbor commissioners will consider adoption of the draft 2010 CAAP update this summer.
