Oakland port to adopt air pollution plan

Port of Oakland commissioners, after a year of soliciting input from port stakeholders, will consider adopting a major air quality plan Tuesday that will set specific pollution reduction attainment and timeline goals for the port.

The Maritime Air Quality Improvement Plan and the Comprehensive Truck Management Plan will commit the port to three major policies:

Reduce diesel particulate matter generated from port activities by 85 percent by 2020.

Take immediate action to reduce air pollution from trucks and ocean going vessels.

Adopt a funding mechanism to pay for the plan's measures.

The MAQIP will define reduction goals for air pollutants including diesel particulate matter, commonly seen as soot in smokestack exhaust. The plan also seeks to develop a criteria for prioritizing which reduction measures should be tackled at which time and in which order.

The CTMP addresses issues related to port trucking and seeks to retrofit 75 percent of the port's drayage fleet with particulate matter reduction devices paid for by a proposed container tax.

The plan is similar to the Clean Air Action Plan adopted by the port of Long Beach and Los Angeles in November 2006. The major components of the Southern California ports' plan -- a drayage truck replacement program and a program to allow ocean going vessels to plug into shoreside power while at dock -- have both been slow to implement. The truck program has been delayed more than a year by differing industry and environmental group opposition. The electrification program, while moving forward, is still limited to only a handful of berths.

Source: American Shipper