LOS ANGELES: Community leaders joined with port officials in San Pedro for a ceremonial “plugging in” of a China Shipping container ship using new, environmentally friendly technology. June 2004 Daily Breeze file photo.
The Port of Los Angeles has set new records for reducing harmful emissions from port-related activity, with diesel particulates down an unprecedented 85 percent in the past 10 years and sulfur oxides bordering on total elimination.
The latest pollution-reduction figures, contained in a report released Thursday, indicate the port not only has reached its 2014 goals but, in many cases, has hit its 2023 targets.
Christopher Cannon, director of the port’s Environmental Management Department, said in a telephone interview Thursday that he isn’t surprised.
“Our success has to be attributed to the fact that the port and business industry worked together in a collaboration to find ways to do this,” said Cannon, who began his career with the port in the early days of the pollution fight launched under former Mayor James Hahn in 2001. “There are a lot of very creative people in the business community.”
In addition to the 85 percent drop in particulate matter since 2005, sulphur oxides have plummeted 97 percent and nitrogen oxides emissions were down 52 percent in the same period, the port said in a news release.
