By Nick Diamantides, Special to the Signal Tribune
About 5,000 ships enter the Port of Long Beach every year, and an average of 16,000 big-rig trucks per day carry cargo into or out of the harbor district. The environmental impacts, logistics requirements and security issues of the Port’s operations are immense. Last Saturday, Port officials took representatives of the news media on a harbor cruise to show them how the Port works and to explain the progress made toward improving all aspects of the movement of cargo.
Art Wong, assistant director of communications, noted that the ocean water in the Port is cleaner now than it was a decade ago. “We have a very serious program to regulate what port tenants (terminal operators) can put into the water,” he said. “We also have much more stringent regulations as to what ships can dump from their ballast waters.”
Wong noted that, as a result of the Port’s efforts, giant sea kelp and other underwater vegetation is more plentiful in the harbor, and wildlife–including sea lions, lobsters and many species of fish–is more abundant as well. “A lot of the pollution in the harbor comes from what is dumped into the Los Angeles River,” Wong explained. “We have no control over that, but we hope that more stringent regulations will go into effect to prohibit the dumping of substances that end up polluting the ocean waters of Long Beach.”
According to Wong, the port is also taking steps to reduce air pollution. “Our green flag program offers reduced fees to ships that voluntarily slow down as they approach and leave the port,” he said. “Slower ships burn less fuel and produce less air pollution.” Other steps include encouraging the use of trains instead of trucks and constructing “cold iron facilities,” which supply electrical power to docked vessels so that ship engines can be shut off during their stay at the harbor.
Loading and unloading the huge ships–some of which carry 8,000 cargo containers–requires the use of some of the most sophisticated gantry cranes in the world. Meanwhile, port staff and law enforcement officials must keep a constant vigil to prevent a terrorist attack. The Signal Tribune will feature more details on Port of Long Beach operations in upcoming issues.
