 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.
 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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Tugboats