Port Panelists Criticized Over Missed Meeting

Officials from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach who sit on a panel reviewing plans to widen the 710 Freeway failed to attend a meeting to hear a long-awaited report insisting that air pollution from the ports be cleaned up before the project begins.

The port commissioners’ absence at the Thursday night meeting irritated residents who are already upset because they believe the ports are not doing enough to stem pollution from ships, trucks and trains.

“If anyone needs to hear those poor people lining up at that microphone, it must be the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that are driving this process,” San Pedro community activist Noel Park said.

Port officials said Friday that their representatives could not attend because of illness and scheduling conflicts.

At the Thursday meeting, 24 residents criticized the ports for what they described as air so contaminated that it is sickening their children. The seats reserved for the two commissioners were empty as the panel overseeing plans to expand the freeway from eight to 14 lanes heard those complaints and received a community report stating bluntly that the long-planned expansion should not proceed until the ports find a way to rein in air pollution.

The meeting marked the start of renewed efforts to rebuild the aging Long Beach Freeway, which links the nation’s largest port complex with the rail yards of Commerce and East Los Angeles. The 18-mile highway, choked with big rigs hauling port cargo, is considered one of the state’s most dangerous urban freeways. The corridor is polluted with diesel fumes and other contaminants, prompting fears that an expanded highway would make the air even dirtier.

In response, freeway planners named a 38-member Community Advisory Committee that has met 12 times since February to study potential effects. The result is a 34-page report that lists conditions to be met before construction begins, including a call for reducing air pollution from the ports and freeway.

Health concerns must be considered first, panel member and USC preventive medicine professor Edward L. Avol told the audience Thursday. Avol was among the researchers who recently published a USC study documenting that dirty air can permanently stunt children’s lungs.

The report was submitted to the Oversight Policy Committee, made up of elected officials and government officials overseeing the Long Beach Freeway’s planning. The group is scheduled to vote Oct. 28 on the report’s findings. A panel of city engineers approved the report in early September, with representatives of the port voting against approval.

Missing Thursday were L.A. Harbor Commissioner Thomas Warren and Long Beach Harbor Commission Chairman John Calhoun. Warren was ill, a port spokesman said. Calhoun said he had to attend a conference.