Port of Los Angeles wins clean terminal equipment grant

The $800,000 grant, awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will pay between 25 and 40 percent of the cost to replace and upgrade 18 pieces of yard equipment at two of the port’s container terminals.    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded the Port of Los Angeles an $800,000 grant to replace and upgrade cargo moving equipment.
   The port said the grant will pay between 25 and 40 percent of the cost to replace and upgrade 18 pieces of yard equipment at two of its container terminals, operated by APM Terminals Pacific Ltd. and TraPac LLC.
   The terminals will fund the lion’s share of the $3 million project. APM Terminals will invest more than $2 million to replace 16 yard tractors with new equipment powered by Tier 4 clean diesel engines, and TraPac will spend $174,000 to repower two heavy-duty forklifts with Tier 4 engines.
   The equipment is due to be in service by fall 2018.
   “The EPA grant is precisely the kind of support that allows our partners to keep trading up to the greenest equipment on the market,” Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said. “We will continue to aggressively pursue these opportunities to further our efforts to use the cleanest equipment available.”
   The project will further reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides and diesel particulate matter – pollutants associated with asthma, cancer and premature death – from port-related sources. The annual savings in health costs for Los Angeles County alone are estimated at more than $11 million.