Pollution at the ports

Re “A cloud over the ports,” editorial, Oct. 6

The insanity of the ports, regulators and environmental groups in ignoring the greatest contributor to deaths from air pollution in coastal Southern California is about to kill me. It’s the ships, stupid. The attention to trucks and the struggling clean-trucks program serve as a horrible distraction from the established fact that ships emit more of the most harmful pollutants than any other source. Even more compelling is the fact that simply burning currently available low-sulfur fuel in ships would reduce the most harmful cancer-causing pollutants by one-third in one day. If and when the trucks program becomes reality, the total benefit would be on the order of a one-fifth reduction at best.

The shipping giant Maersk has proved the feasibility of low-sulfur fuel, and the ports planned to implement the cleaner fuel in their clean-air action plan by Sept. 30. But they have failed again on the most important opportunity to clean our air and reduce the horrible price Southern Californians pay for the benefit of the nation. As the ultra-fine cancer-causing particulate matter from ships drifts onshore, the time has come to face reality.

Richard Havenick

San Pedro

The time is overdue to chart and implement a course to reduce pollution from diesel exhaust from goods movement through the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports and the 710 Freeway corridor. But we will not know how effective such courses will be without good measurements of air pollution along the corridor, which accounts for the bulk of health damage. We should not have to wait for the count of deaths to decrease to know the pollution-reduction plans are working. The technology is here to accurately measure air contaminants continuously. It is time we installed the proper monitoring stations along the 710.

Harold Tseklenis

Downey