Creating a healthy wake for our port communities
A vital hub of commerce for Southern California, the Port of Los Angeles encompasses 7500 acres and 43 miles of waterfront, handles nearly 190 million metric revenue tons of cargo yearly, and adds 1.1 million jobs to the State.
Yet the Port also poses an immense health threat to surrounding communities and to the workers it employs in the form of lung cancer, asthma and other pulmonary diseases. The resulting jobs-health-environment paradox puts the city of Los Angeles in a powerful and challenging responsive position.
Advancing the Green Port plan
The formation of Green LA’s Port Work Group helped assemble environmental, public health, community and labor advocates who had been working independently on Port-related issues impacting the Harbor Area.
Together, the Port Work Group helped achieve significant policy wins including the following milestones:
- Clean Air Action Plan
- Clean Trucks Program
- Enacting of Proposition 1C provisions
The Campaign for On-Dock Rail
Current Port Work Group initiatives include preventing the sitting and expansion of rail yards adjacent to residential neighborhoods and the building of sufficient on-dock infrastructure capacity at the Port, as outlined in the Clean Air Action Plan.
Green LA’s Port Work Group is continuing to press for reducing air contaminants from the port and attendant movement of goods. The essential next step is to stop proposed transfer facilities, SCIG and ICTF, which will release contaminants next to schools and homes in a low-income, immigrant community.
In an on-going effort to remain on the forefront of advocacy, the group and its members maintain regular communication with nonprofits in other major port cities. Individuals share policy strategies, information and best practices related to improving goods transition and Port’s operations using green and sustainable methods.
Participating Organizations
- Coalition for Clean Air
- Communities for a Better Environment
- East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
- Harbor Vision Task Force/Livable Cities Committee
- Sierra Club
- Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma
- Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization
- Natural Resources Defense Council
- Transportation 4 America
Advisors
- Occidental College
- Southern CA Environmental Health Sciences Center, USC
