That’s the bad news, but, fortunately, the Port of Long Beach is taking steps to clean up its record—and the air we all breathe.

“Some may think we’re not working fast enough,” says John Pope, media relations manager for the Port of Long Beach, “but a lot of ports have not even begun to think about addressing their problems.

“We get threats (of lawsuits) from industry, saying that we’re going too far, and threats from environmental groups that we’re not going far enough. We want to move forward and do the right thing for the environment as aggressively as we can without disruption to cargo.”

And to be sure, moving cargo is of utmost importance. In 2007, cargo valued at more than $140 billion moved through the Port of Long Beach on its way to distribution centers, stores, businesses, and households across the nation. The off-loading and transportation of 19,900 20-foot containers each day boggle the mind. This well-oiled machine of ships, cranes, trains, and trucks requires energy and lots of it, too often in the form of high-emission fuels.

Under the port’s Green Flag Program, incoming ships slow down 20 miles offshore and travel at that reduced speed into the port. Though the program is voluntary, 90 percent of the traffic participates, says Pope, as ships receive a rebate on their docking fees for doing so. Slower-moving ships burn less fuel, which means that about 600 tons of pollution per year are not put into the air because of these efforts.

David Petitt, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that 60 percent of port pollution is due to ships that burn bunker fuel, which is 50-100 times dirtier than the diesel fuel used by trucks. He says that if the port “told shipping companies that they had to use low-sulfur fuel, they could be burning it tomorrow. There’s no retrofitting involved. And this would reduce port pollution by half.”

Pope wishes it were that easy. Unfortunately, he says, it is the job of the federal government to set and enforce emissions standards, something that it has been unwilling to do. On Feb. 27, a federal appeals judge rejected a state regulation aimed at reducing emissions from cargo and cruise ships, ruling that the state must seek federal approval before imposing pollution limits. Because of the feds’ laissez-faire stance toward pollution regulation, the port has instead used its leverage as a landlord to phase in environmental protection.

When leases come up, they are rewritten with provisions for low-sulfur fuel and the use of shoreline electricity, which allows ships to plug in at the dock instead of idling their engines to keep things like electricity and water running onboard while in port.

“Everyone agrees we should have federal input on low-sulfur fuels and shoreline electricity,” says Pope, “and we wish there was a level playing field, port to port. But absent that, we’re going to push for environmental standards and not use the lack of federal-government leadership as an excuse to do nothing.”

Once the ships are docked, they have to be unloaded, and that requires energy and equipment too. The port’s tall, ship-to-shore cranes are already electrically powered, but in late- January, the harbor commissioners approved a $5-million program to convert the 85 or so smaller cranes that move containers within the terminals from diesel fuel to electric power.

Through matching-fund grants, terminals are expected to voluntarily convert their cranes. In a best-case scenario, if all the cranes convert to electricity, pollution could be reduced by about 350 tons per year.

For decades, Long Beach residents have both benefited and suffered because of the port. The 3,200-acre, 80-berth port—the second-largest in the United States—has meant some 30,000 jobs in Long Beach alone, but has also given west-side neighborhoods some of the worst air pollution in the country. It is estimated that the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports account for more pollution than do the region’s 6 million cars. Studies show that people living down- wind of the dirty air face increased cancer risks 100 times greater than what California allows near factories. They also suffer higher rates of asthma, birth defects, and lung failure.

As part of the Clean Air Action Plan adopted by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in 2006, the Pacific Harbor Line began phasing in a new fleet of lower-emission, clean-diesel locomotives in July of last year. These locomotives burn 30 percent less fuel than those they are replacing—some of which are a half century old. They also emit 70 percent less diesel particulates and 46 percent less smog-producing nitrogen oxides than older engines.

The Alameda Corridor, which opened in 2002, runs from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles 20 miles north to downtown Los Angeles. Because trains move underground, above-ground traffic does not have to idle at train crossings while locomotives pass, as was the case before the corridor was built. According to a 2005 Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority study, from 2002 to 2004, the corridor eliminated 3,863 tons of pollutants. Moreover, a single train can transport the same cargo that would require 250-280 trucks—trucks that would be idling at intersections and thereby wasting fuel and polluting the air.

The Clean Truck Program, approved by the Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners on Feb. 19, will replace and modernize the port’s truck fleet, thereby reducing truck-generated pollution by 80 percent in the next four years.

As of Oct. 1 of this year, pre-1989 trucks will be banned from the port. By Jan. 1, 2010, only those trucks built after 1993 will be allowed to operate in the terminals, and by Jan. 1, 2012, all trucks must meet 2007 federal emissions standards that require trucks to be 80 percent less polluting than older models.

As the port does not own the trucks that operate within its terminals, it has authorized a $35-per-container fee to generate the $2 billion that will subsidize trucking companies’ and independent operators’ purchase of new, less-polluting trucks.

“It’s a complex issue when trying to change out more than 16,000 trucks in such a short amount of time,” says Richard D. Steinke, who has been the port’s executive director for the past 16 years. “The Port of Long Beach is changing the way the industry does business. As international trade has accelerated and consumerism has taken on a whole new dimension, so the port has dramatically changed. We have to make sure that, with that growth, we move forward in an environmentally sound manner.”

Commuters have the port to thank for faster trips down Ocean Boulevard. On June 25 of last year, the $65-million improvement project on Terminal Island was completed. Due to the elimination of two stop lights, an elevated Ocean Boulevard, and a raised interchange between Ocean Boulevard and the Terminal Island Freeway, commuting between Long Beach and San Pedro is now five to 10 minutes quicker. And less stops along the way mean less idling at intersections, increased fuel savings, and reduced pollution.

The estimated annual fuel-cost savings are $7 million, or about 9,300 gallons per day. Moreover, because of these road improvements, air pollution has been reduced by 350 tons per year.

All these and other efforts to green the port would mean very little without a strong sense of responsibility to the community in which the port operates.

“We realized that this port needed to be seen as a public port, as part of the community,” says Mario Cordero, who has served as a port commissioner since 2003.

To that end, the port sponsors an annual Green Port Fest, offers boat tours, provides educational programs to elementary schools, and awards scholarships to local high-school students who are preparing for careers in international trade.

And though there is sometimes grumbling from trucking and shipping companies about the port’s green measures, one of the port’s largest container firms, the Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), went beyond mere compliance early this year to active participation in the community. Using $100,000 of the rebates it received for voluntarily slowing its ships down while in the harbor, OOCL provided funds to the Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine for the development of the city’s first playground to be fully accessible to disabled children. The company also donated $40,000 to the Long Beach Education Foundation for a computer lab at the Elizabeth Hudson K-8 Academy and for Poly High School’s Pac Rim language laboratory.

OOCL boasts 100-percent compliance with the port’s Green Flag program. As Anthony Otto, vice president of OOCL’s subsidiary Long Beach Container Terminals Inc., says, “Long Beach has been a great home for us. OOCL and LBCTI are pleased to give something back to the community, which contributes so much to our companies’ success.”

As commerce continues to expand and the port faces pressures to increase its cargo capacity, authorities realize that the port can only grow by growing green. The port has to find ways to clean up the air—and to find ways to get government regulatory agencies to work with the port rather than thwart its efforts. The port is not separate from Long Beach; it is a vital player in the city’s economic future. Making that growth both economically and environmentally viable is the challenge we all face.