Posted on 02/23/2006 11:43:19 AM PST by NormsRevenge
As state and national pressures build to reduce diesel pollution at sea ports, the Port of San Diego has started exploring ways to slash emissions from cruise liners and other ships that call on the city.
No one tracks how much air pollution the Port of San Diego creates, but it's widely agreed that having massive diesel engines from cruise liners and other ships idling for hours at the pier isn't good for air quality.
The effort centers on providing dockside power so vessels can plug in and turn off their diesel engines, a process called cold ironing. A growing number of ports – including those in Seattle and Juneau – offer the service to cut down on smog-forming contaminants.
No one tracks how much air pollution the Port of San Diego creates, but it's widely agreed that having massive diesel engines idling for hours at the pier isn't good for air quality. San Diego notched 217 cruise-ship calls last year, more than double the count in 2000.
The port's first step is a feasibility study designed to provide cost estimates and design concepts for dockside power at its 10th Avenue and cruise-ship terminals.
A Feb. 15 letter from the port to San Diego Gas & Electric lays the groundwork for the study, which would look at ways to deliver 12 to 24 megawatts of electricity to each terminal. A megawatt is enough to power about 1,000 homes.
SDG&E already appears to be on board.
“Cold ironing will benefit all San Diegans with cleaner air,” said company spokeswoman Anne Silva.
The retrofits are expected to cost $3 million to $5 million for each terminal. Ships also must be altered so they can connect to shore power. Each vessel's upgrade would cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
David Merk, director of environmental services at the port, said it is too soon to say who would pay the bill for dock upgrades, but that port officials would seek state money.
There are many other uncertainties, including how dock-power connections will be standardized to meet the needs of international shippers and cruise lines.
“We are in new territory here and we are dealing with an industry that serves the world,” Merk said. “There are a lot of questions that are going to need to be addressed.”
The cold-ironing trend is clear.
“All ports on the (West Coast) will definitely be cold-ironed within the next five to 10 years,” said David Connors, chief electrical engineer with Cash & Associates in Huntington Beach.
Connors' company is working with the Port of Long Beach to install dockside power.
Interest in port pollution is driven by an increasing awareness of the health dangers posed by diesel exhaust. Statewide, about 75 percent of cancer risk from air pollution is linked to diesel engines.
Attention on ports also has grown because more heavily regulated sources of air pollution – including trucks and factories – have reduced their output. To the extent that port emissions haven't lessened, they become a larger part of the overall air-quality problem.
“(Port) regulations currently in place . . . are at best mediocre,” said William Becker, executive director of the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials in Washington, D.C.
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In a report sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Feb. 2, Becker concluded that 4,400 Americans die prematurely each year from breathing air polluted by trains and ships.
In June 2004, the EPA announced that it would update emission rules for those sources. The agency has fallen off its schedule, but an agency spokesman agreed with Becker about the “urgency” of the situation and said the EPA plans to issue new regulations this year.
Environmentalists said that can't happen soon enough. They want the EPA to adopt rules for cutting particulate matter and nitrogen-oxide pollution from marine and locomotive sources by at least 90 percent.
“There is no reason for ships and trains to get a free ride,” said Richard Kassel, director of the Clean Fuels & Vehicle Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.
In Sacramento, lawmakers also are targeting the problem. The Assembly passed a measure in late January that would define “diesel magnet sources” of pollution to include airports, seaports and rail yards.
The designation would require those facilities to calculate their toxic releases, conduct risk assessments, notify affected communities and find ways to reduce exposure, said bill co-author Assemblywoman Jenny Oropeza, D-Carson.
Cruise ship calls at the Port of San Diego have more than doubled since 2000. The vessels bring hundreds of thousands of visitors, but their diesel engines add to the city's air pollution.
2000 101 calls
2001 122 calls
2002 123 calls
2003 126 calls
2004 206 calls
2005 217 calls
Seems like a minor issue, hmm?
A no brainer as they say.
Fine with me, as long as its power comes from a nuclear plant and not solar. ;-)
Been in and out of there twice the last few years, can't say it was that bad air quality-wise , depends how many ships are in town too..
That place has a lot of docks, how might it affect the military? Are they exempt from EPA rules?
Thanks!
idling diesels, huh? .. that area has a lot of traffic too... both civilian and military
I'll have to check the bay area , we have oakland which is already under some such constraints if I recall correctly.
Navy ships spend lots of time in port. Hooking to shore power is pretty routine for them.
Thanks. I suspected as much, appreciate the confirmation.
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