By Nick Diamantides
Staff Writer
Support is slowly building for plans to improve the quality of life for West Long Beach residents–including regulations that would force the trucking industry to reduce the amount of toxic diesel particulates it spews into the neighborhoods adjacent to the Long Beach (710) Freeway. Proof of that support was evident at the October 4 meeting of the Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance (WANA). Sixty people came to the Jackie Robinson Academy Cafetorium, at 2750 Pine Avenue, that evening to hear featured speakers discuss their perspectives on “Environmental Justice Along the I-710 Corridor.”
Environmental justice, according to a WANA handout, “is the concept that all citizens deserve a healthy environment in which to live and work, and access to the decision-making process that affects their environment.”
In order to have influence in the City of Long Beach’s decision-making process, WANA is forming the Wrigley 20230 Visioning Task Force, which will attempt to convey local residents’ needs, desires and goals with regard to city plans for the future of the Wrigley area. The handout stated, “The strategy that WANA will follow to ensure environmental justice in our community is collaborative brainstorming.”
Joan Greenwood, WANA secretary, explained that when residents get together with city officials and other planners to share ideas on what can be done to improve the quality of life, good things happen. “We need to have more people who live here involved in the process,” she explained. “If our governmental leaders schedule a time to come to a meeting, and attendance at that meeting is low, there is a tendency to think that residents don’t care what happens to their neighborhoods.”
One of the featured speakers, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Mario Cordero, took it a step further. He urged residents to show up at harbor commission and city council meetings to let elected and appointed officials know that cleaning up the environment–especially the air we breathe–is of paramount importance to the people who live and work in the Long Beach area.
Cordero briefly outlined the San Pedro Bay Clean Air Action Plan, which was created by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach with the cooperation and participation of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, California Air Resources Board and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The plan proposes hundreds of millions of dollars in investments by the ports, the local air district, the state, and port-related industry to cut particulate matter (PM) pollution from all port-related sources by at least 47 percent within the next five years. Measures to be implemented under the plan also will reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by more than 45 percent, and will also result in reductions of sulfur oxides (SOx) by at least 52 percent. NOx is a precursor of smog, SOx contributes to particulate matter, and PM has been shown to lead to health problems.
Under the plan, the ports propose to eliminate “dirty” diesel trucks from San Pedro Bay cargo terminals within five years by helping to finance a new generation of clean or retrofitted vehicles.
The plan also calls for all major container cargo and cruise ship terminals at the ports to be equipped with shore-side electricity within five to ten years so that vessels at berth can shut down their diesel-powered auxiliary engines. To decrease emissions of air pollutants, ships would also be required to reduce their speeds when entering or leaving the harbor region, use low-sulfur fuels, and employ other emission-reduction measures and technologies.
In addition, the plan accelerates the efforts of a California Air Resources Board pollution reduction plan by requiring faster replacement of existing cargo-handling equipment with new equipment that will meet the toughest U.S. Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards.
Cordero warned the audience, however, that powerful political forces–especially the trucking industry–oppose aspects of the Clean Air Action Plan. He stressed that without strong support from the public, implementing the plan would be difficult, and portions of it could be eliminated altogether.
Another featured speaker, Long Beach Redevelopment Agency Board Member John Cross also urged residents to communicate their concerns to elected and appointed officials. Cross warned, “We are filtering our air with our children’s lungs.”
Other speakers at the two-hour WANA meeting included Long Beach City Councilmember Tonia Reyes Uranga, Smart Growth Advocate Joe Linton and Long Beach RiverLink Project Director Susan Zoske.
For more information on WANA or getting involved in the planning process for the future of the I-710 Corridor, phone (562) 599-0812.
