Clean Air Program
Keeping the Air Clean
Expansion of the Port's Marine Terminals under the VISION 2000 program will increase the number of trucks, cargo handling equipment, and ships operating at the Port as well as the air emissions produced by these types of vehicles. The Port's residential neighbors, concerned about increases in diesel emissions and a loss of local air quality, filed a lawsuit against the VISION 2000 program. The Port settled this suit and decided to go beyond legally-mandated pollution control requirements to aggressively pursue an Air Quality Mitigation Program.

Local sources of air pollutants include diesel-powered trucks, buses, and container moving equipment such as forklifts, top picks, and yard hustlers. These vehicles emit several pollutants of concern: hydrocarbons (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and particulate matter (PM). These pollutants contribute to smog in the San Francisco Bay region and can affect human health.

The Port does not own, or operate, any of this equipment and therefore had to design an incentive-based program for the local area. As of June 2001, the Port has successfully implemented several components of the Air Quality Mitigation Program and will achieve a significant reduction in emissions. The primary goal of the program is to reduce the largest quantity of emissions possible with the $9 million in available funding by focusing on reduction of particulate matter from diesel engines.

Tractor Trailer Trucks
Trucks move many of the containers in and out of the Port of Oakland and are operated by a variety of different owners and companies. The Air Quality Mitigation Program for trucks has two primary activities. The Port will fund replacement and retrofitting of diesel truck engines on local trucks as soon as low-emission engines become available in 2002. The Port is also working with a trucking company to complete a demonstration of alternative diesel fuels and add-on devices that reduce truck diesel emissions.

Container Terminal Equipment
The Port created a program for marine terminal operators to repower and retrofit container terminal equipment. All the marine terminal operators submitted applications for Port funding. The Port has approved changing 150 pieces of equipment to new low-emission diesel engines, installing 151 diesel oxidation catalysts and installing 159 diesel particulate filters. Besides these changes to equipment, 50% of the marine terminal operators are now using ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel to further reduce emissions.

The container terminal equipment program will reduce hydrocarbon emissions by nearly 80%, carbon monoxide emissions by nearly 70%, nitrogen oxide emissions by over 30% and particulate matter emissions by over 70%. The total project will eliminate 60 tons of particulate matter, over 470 tons of nitrogen oxides and over 150 tons of hydrocarbons.

Transit Buses
To decrease diesel emissions in the local area, the Port funded the retrofit of diesel engines in local transit buses. In December 1999, the Port granted $659,000 to the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit) to install low-emission diesel engines on 27 buses. The replacement of the old diesel engines will eliminate 39.7 tons of nitrogen oxides and 3.9 tons of particulate matter.

Tugboats
Tugboats play an essential role in guiding container ships in and out of the Port. In July 2000, the Port approved funding to replace two tugboat engines with new low emission diesel engines. This replacement will eliminate .9 tons of particulate matter (PM) and 26 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) annually, or 15.5 tons of PM and 431 tons of NOx over the sixteen year life of the project.

Local Stationary Sources
The Port identified several local industries which produce pollutants that might be reduced through the Air Quality Mitigation Program. The Port is completing an engineering study of a local factory to evaluate potential retrofit measures.

The Port is taking a sustainable approach to achieving local air quality improvements while completing a major expansion of its maritime operations. The Port of Oakland's Air Quality Mitigation Program will be completed by 2005. The program will reduce sources of pollutants in the local Port area by using incentives to fund the replacement and retrofit of engines in trucks, buses, tugboats, forklifts and other cargo moving equipment.