(The following story by Donna Littlejohn appeared on the Press Telegram website on July 11.)
LONG BEACH, Calif. — Hailed as a milestone in the effort to “grow the ports green,” two eco-friendly, clean-diesel locomotives rolled along dockside tracks for the first time Wednesday in the Port of Long Beach.
“I love these trains,” said Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga. “It’s hard to say a train is cute, but they’re very nice-looking.”
The celebration included nearly an hour of speeches by local dignitaries, who praised the new locomotives as a model for other companies and ports to follow.
So far, the $23 million public-private project has delivered the first four clean locomotives for Pacific Harbor Line, with two of the cars unveiled at the Port of Long Beach for the commissioning.
Officials from both the ports and cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach were on hand in a show of solidarity.
Two additional clean-diesel engines, costing $1.3 million apiece, will arrive each month through the end of the year to serve on the ports’ switching lines, tracks that provide service within the twin port complex. Eventually, the entire Pacific Harbor Line fleet will be replaced.
“This will dramatically clean the air in and around these ports,” said Mayor Bob Foster. “We all know there are health impacts associated with these ports. This is a fantastic start.”
Uranga, also a board member of the Southern California Air Quality Management District, thanked the ports and Pacific Harbor Line for stepping up to replace polluting engines, some of which were 50 years old.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you for seizing the opportunity and making this commitment,” she said. “I personally want to thank you for helping me breathe easier.”
The rail project, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said, is an important jump-start for the Clean Air Action Plan, a sweeping program to dramatically reduce pollution in the ports. Considered vital to the regional, state and national economies, the ports are expected to triple in size over the next 20 years.
“There are some who say just close down the ports, they’re a public health risk,” Villaraigosa said. “If we were to close down these ports it would kill the Southern California economy.
“The growth is unstoppable,” he said, but any future growth must stop the trend of pollution by making use of new technologies and stricter standards.
“This is America’s port,” L.A. City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said. “Almost half of the goods that come into this country come in through these ports.”
While the ports represent the region’s “economic engine,” Hahn said residents have “been choking on that engine for way too long.
“The technology exists today, we just have to have the political will,” she said. Local residents have unfairly had to bear the burden of higher health risks because of the rapidly growing ports, Hahn said.
“There’s no doubt these ports will grow,” said Long Beach harbor commission President Mario Cordero. “The question for us is how will we grow responsibly?”
The locomotives, outfitted with remanufactured engines, produce 70 percent less diesel exhaust and 46 percent less smog-forming nitrogen oxides. They also cut greenhouse gases by burning 30 percent less fuel.
The project cost is being shared by the company, the ports and the Carl Moyer Fund, a state air quality improvement fund administered by the South Coast AQMD.
Pacific Harbor Line, a private company, has provided rail service to the two ports since 1998, connecting to the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad lines.
“Industry is not the enemy in this,” said Peter Gilbertson, CEO of Anacostia and Pacific Co. and chairman of Pacific Harbor Line. “We are partners in this. We want to be part of the solution.”
Now it’s time for the other rail companies to follow suit, said S. David Freeman, president of the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.
“We’re on the march for cleaner air,” he said.