Saving lives, cleaner ports:
Longshore workers endorse efforts to reduce port-related diesel emissions

 

Feb. 16, 2006 –The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has joined the effort to reduce toxic air emissions from port-related activities along the West Coast, calling for a one-fifth reduction in port emissions by 2010.

"The thousands of men and women I represent and work for raise their families under the cloud of port pollution.  They have made a simple demand of their union.  While they want to earn a good living, they do not want to pay with their lives for a stronger economy," said ILWU International President James Spinosa.

With port traffic booming at West Coast ports, reducing diesel emissions is a high priority for the West Coast Collaborative, a public-private partnership to reduce diesel emissions. Ports up and down the West Coast have joined forces to mutually address emissions from port-related activities. A particularly difficult issue is dealing with foreign-flagged vessels that burn the dirtiest diesel fuels.

Dennis McLerran, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, chairs the Maritime Work Group of the West Coast Collaborative. He also is an active participant in the West Coast Governors’ Global Warming Initiative, which seeks reductions in diesel emissions as a climate-protection measure as well.

In our own region, the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum, a voluntary, public-private partnership of maritime organizations including the ports of Tacoma, Seattle and Everett, is working to quantify regional marine-related emissions and develop cost-effective measures for reducing them. Dave Kircher, the agency’s Air Resources Manager, and Kimberley Cline of the agency’s Communications Department, are active in the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum.

Links:

• Read the International Longshore and Warehouse Union news release.
• The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s Diesel Solutions Program, launched in 2001, has many projects under way with partners all across our four-county region to clean up diesel exhaust from sources as diverse as school buses, garbage trucks, ferries and airport ground equipment. Check out the quarterly status report.