Press Release

Tackling Boat Pollution at the Ports

(Friday, October 26, 2007) – As a sign that the state is taking port pollution seriously, today the California Air Resources Board (CARB) directed its staff to strengthen a proposed regulation to reduce air pollution from the many boats operating in California’s ports (known as the harbor craft regulation). The board was expected to vote on the regulation today, however, they decided to hold off until November. Led by Chair Mary Nichols, the board decided to give their staff time to make adjustments so as to accelerate reducing public exposure from harmful pollutants.

The regulation will help clean up a significant source of diesel pollution that has been largely unregulated to date, including many of the boats used in commercial freight operations at the ports, such as tugboats and towboats. Harbor craft are estimated to emit 3.3 tons per day of diesel soot and 73 tons per day of NOx—with most of the emissions having a direct impact on port and water way communities where the vessels operate. The proposed CARB regulation is necessary in the battle to clean a major and largely unregulated source of air pollution in the state – California port operations.

The Coalition for Clean Air and many other environmental advocates have been calling for a quicker timeline to implement this regulation. In particular, CCA supports the far more aggressive schedule that has been proposed for the South Coast region and believes the entire state should benefit from this more health protective phase-in approach.

The harbor craft regulation is just one of a handful of essential regulations that the CARB is pursuing to clamp down on harmful emissions from port related sources. In the coming months, we anticipate groundbreaking board decisions on regulations to clean up port trucks, ship engines and to plug container ships into cleaner power at the dock instead of running their dirty diesel engines while docked.

The clock is ticking in the fight against growing port pollution and the implementation of emission reduction measures has suffered from multiple delays—even with the need for urgency spelled out in the State’s Goods Movement Emission Reduction Plan that was passed last year.

Coalition for Clean Air program associate Candice Kim was encouraged by Chairman Nichol’s call for a stronger plan, stating that “we’ve subsidized goods movement with our health for long enough. Strong regulations are long overdue to protect public health from deadly diesel pollution.”

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For more than 35 years, the non-profit Coalition for Clean Air has been committed to restoring clean air to California. With offices in Sacramento, Los Angeles and Fresno, it is dedicated to strengthening the environmental movement by promoting broad-based community involvement, advocating responsible public policy and providing technical expertise.

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