Charleston Port Related Air Quality Issues

It is clear that port facilities create air pollution which can endanger nearby residents. The Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach is the largest single air polluter in Southern California. Diesel air pollution is one of the deadliest forms of air pollution.

To date, the Port of Charleston is not testing the air quality from its operations. The SPA nor DHEC have ever tested for pm 2.5 particulates around any of our existing port facilities. As West Coast ports begin to try to clean up their air quality, look for the ships to begin to move to East Coast ports where our air quality is not being monitored.

In California, where the largest container ports are located, containers are being "taxed", and the revenue from these taxes is being used to clean up the air from this shipping activity. The taxes to clean up the air equate to roughly the SPA's profit margin handling containers.

Why doesn't the SPA and DHEC want to test the air quality around neighborhoods of our existing terminals?

Read this excellent investigative article by Stratton Lawrence from the
Charleston City Paper

NOVEMBER 28, 2007 Charleston's Dirty Little Secret Don't breathe deep — there are killers afloat

So here's an unwelcome surprise: Our air is downright dirty. Earlier this year, the American Lung Association (ALA) gave Charleston County an "F" for the levels of particulate matter in our air. There's no special scale here. F means we haven't done our homework, and now we're playing catch-up. We rank first in the state among counties where people are at risk from breathing diesel soot, and 239 among 3,109 counties nationwide.

Do you or any of your family members have asthma or other respiratory problems?

Please learn more about the Lowcountry's air quality.

See where DHEC has located our air monitors in this link - please note they are not located anywhere near our major air pollution sources.

Let's look at what other port cities have discovered:

People's World Weekly, September 1, 2007
"Truck diesel pollution is five times higher in West Oakland, near the port,
than in other parts of the county, and one in five youngsters has asthma."

Seattle- From Seattle Times February 23, 2006
"With only a few exceptions, the most unhealthful air in the state is found in
neighborhoods near ports throughout Western Washington, according to a Seattle Times analysis of an Environmental Protection Agency study of cancer-causing air pollution, released publicly Wednesday." "However, nearly all of the tracts with the worst air are clustered around ports: the Port of Seattle, the Port of Tacoma, the Port of Longview, the Port of Vancouver and the refineries at Anacortes."

Los Angeles January 2006
“With the steady increase in port activity and associated goods movement, it is imperative that the AQMD take all feasible measures to protect public health from the ports, which are the No. 1 fixed source of air pollution in this region,” said William Burke, Ed.D., Governing Board Chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Here is an example of what the Port of Los Angeles is doing to clean up the
their air.

Why does the State Ports Authority and DHEC refuse to monitor air quality around our existing port operations?

Their plan is to wait for several years until the Navy base terminal is built .
This is simply not in the best interest of our public health. Let's begin serious year round air quality monitoring now at the SPA's terminals and see if we have a problem before we make a potential problem much larger.

For more information on our local air quality issues, please visit www.charlestoncleanair.com

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Charleston Port Related Air Quality Issues

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