Task force seeks active members

By Tom Politeo

Tom Politeo/Harbor Vision Task Force Too much “stuff” pollution, containrs full of “stuff” moved by too many dirty old trucks and ships and dirty energy. Protestor sign sits on floor at Sen Boxer’s hearng n San Pedro.

HABOR VISION TASK FORCE CO-CHAIR
September 2007

The Harbor Visision Task Force works on issues affecting San Pedro Bay and the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the Bay. It also works on issues arrising from goods movement transportation and trade that is centered around the Bay.

San Pedro Bay is home of the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation’s two largest ports. Together, they import more than 42% of all the cargo that comes into the U.S.—most of it arriving from Pacific Rim ports. Shipping through the ports is growing from 7 to 11% a year, and is expected to triple before 2030. 

The ports are also Southern California’s biggest air polluter. The trains and trucks that move cargo to and from the ports contribute to a regional air pollution problem that spans all the way to the “inland ports” in San Bernardino, Riverside and Victorville. 

Sadly, the region’s next biggest polluters, its half dozen oil refineries, are located near the ports.  

Shipping contributes to an estimated 10% of the total greenhouse gasses emitted worldwide. With the shipping industry growing much faster than the rest of the economy, it’s share of greenhouse gases can only be expected to grow. 

The goods movement industry is hooked on cheap trucking taking advantage of more than 15,000 port truckers, the vast majority of which are still underpaid (see “Shipping Blues”, Southern Sierran, July 2002). 

The industry also relies on cheap land to build sprawling facilities in the ports and all along the distribution chain to the “inland ports.” These ports perform cargo handling operations that would once have been done on dock or close to the seaports—except that growth has pushed those operations 50 to 100 miles inland. 

Residential communities, natural habitat and public health pay the toll for the pollution and other problems created by the shipping industry. Poor zoning practices, often aggravated by jurisdictional competition, frequently put polluting facilities immediately next-door to homes. Poor land use has also resulted in a haphazard regional cargo distribution system which is reliant on publicly-financed roads to move cargo greater distances than might otherwise be necessary.

The Task Force also works on waterfront and tidelands trust issues and on cruise ship operations. In a ship-to-ship comparison, cruise ships are the most polluting ships in the ports. The Task Force also looks to restore some of the area’s lost wetlands and habitat.

All of Southern California experiences the impacts of the massive shipping industry, with impacts ranging from light to severe. 

If you’d like to find out more about our issues, would like to volunteer or work on an unpaid internship with us, please contact us. 

Contact Us

You can find us on the web at angeles.sierraclub.org/hvtf. You can also contact the co-chairs Tom Politeo at sc9@politeo.net or 562-618-1127; or Jesse Marquez at wilmingtoncoalition@prodigy.net.

Join our discussion e-mail discussion list by sending an e-mail requesting to join the list to Politeo at the address above.