Clean Air Awards Honor Ports, Tug, Tribe, Performing Arts

"This year's Clean Air Excellence Award winners' dedication to creating a cleaner tomorrow is truly a breath of fresh air," said EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, announcing this year's awards on Wednesday.

"From local to state governments, companies to citizen groups, these award-winners are helping EPA deliver healthier air and healthier lives to all Americans," Johnson said. They will be recognized by the EPA at a ceremony in Washington, DC.

The awards were established in 2000, at the recommendation of the Clean Air Act Advisory Committee, a senior-level policy group that advises tne EPA on implementing the Clean Air Act. There are four categories of awards: clean air technology, community action, education/outreach, and regulatory policy innovations, with one special award for individual achievement.

This year's Southern California winner is for regulatory policy innovations at the Port of Long Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, which share San Pedro Bay.

The ports developed the five year San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan outlining strategies to reduce air emissions and associated health risks from heavy-duty vehicles, oceangoing vessels, cargo-handling equipment, harbor craft, and railroad locomotives involved in port operations. The plan will serve as a model for other ports to follow in the future.

Container ships at the Port of Los Angeles (Photo courtesy Environmental Health Perspectives)

The ports are encouraging vessels to slow to 12 knots when they are within 20 nautical miles of Point Fermin, which reduces emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

Their Clean Trucks Program requires that all trucks calling at the ports meet the 2007 on-road standard by 2012.

Earlier this month, the Port of Los Angeles debuted the world's most powerful electric truck. The heavy-duty electric short-haul drayage truck - the first of its kind at any port worldwide - can pull a 60,000-pound cargo container at a top speed of 40 mph.

Future widespread application of a fleet of electric trucks would be especially useful at the Port of Los Angeles because more than two million truck drayage trips take place between the port terminals and rail and warehouse facilities within five to 10 miles of San Pedro Bay every year.

On Wednesday, as their award was announced, the ports were sponsoring the first San Pedro Bay Ports Technology Conference, bringing together entrepreneurs, financial and legal experts, officials from the two ports and other stakeholders to talk about technological challenges and opportunities in the fields of air quality and energy efficiency, which go hand-in-hand.

"Implementing new clean-air technologies can't happen without strategic partnerships," said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Richard Steinke. "This conference will help create those partnerships, and in turn produce a greener goods-movement system to benefit the entire maritime industry and our local communities."

A related Clean Air Award for innovative technology goes to the Foss Maritime Company for introducing the first hybrid diesel-electric tugboat.This hybrid tug will reduce emissions of hazardous and toxic air pollutants by combining modern batteries and an active power management system to minimize engine use.

The hybrid tug's modular design can be applied as a retrofit to existing tugboats and the tug can incorporate future energy storage improvements in battery technology and hydrogen fuel cells.

Foss Maritime Company began constructing the hybrid tugboat in August 2007 and will deliver it to San Pedro Harbor in 2008.

The other Clean Air Award Winners are:

Technology
Texas Instruments, Texas, and Matros Technologies, Missouri - These companies pioneered the use of catalytic materials for improved abatement of volatile organic compounds in the semiconductor industry

Regulatory/Policy Innovations
Gila River Indian Community Air Quality Management Plan, Arizona - The Gila River Indian Community is the first tribe in the country to develop a multi-program Air Quality Management Plan. The tribe's Department of Environmental Quality Air Quality Program Team created the most comprehensive plan developed by a tribe to regulate air quality under the Clean Air Act. The Plan was enacted into tribal law in December 2006.

Community Action
Project Green Fleet - The Minnesota Environmental Initiative reduced children's exposure to school bus diesel emissions by retrofitting hundreds of buses.

Northern Wood Power Project - Public Services of New Hampshire reduced coal consumption and air emissions by changing a coal-burning boiler for a wood-burning boiler.

Education/Outreach
Life is a Breath of Fresh Air, Alabama, Auntie Litter, Inc. - This performance initiative has educated the community on the harmful effects of low-level ozone and particle pollution through youth-targeted outreach, such as children's rap music and skits.

Spare the Air in Greenville County, South Carolina - Greenville County's education outreach has implemented a campaign to improve air quality through multiple media outlets, such as public presentations and booths at festivals.

Drive Clean Across Texas Campaign - A partnership between the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality promotes improvements in air quality through behavioral changes of drivers. The campaign, focusing on nine urban areas in Texas with poor air quality, has five simple messages: maintain your vehicle; drive less; buy a cleaner vehicle; drive the speed limit; and reduce idling.

Georgia Radon Education Program - The University of Georgia College of Family and Consumer Sciences prevents radon-induced lung cancer through education, testing, and the reduction of radon in indoor air.

Thomas W. Zosel Outstanding Individual Achievement Award
The late Dr. Joseph T. Ling is being celebrated for his holistic approach to environmental management.

In 1975, Dr. Ling launched 3M's Pollution Prevention Pays program, which seeks to eliminate pollution at the source through product reformulation, process modification, equipment redesign, and the recycling and reuse of waste materials.

Since its introduction, the program has prevented more than 2.6 billion pounds of first year pollutants with more than 565 million pounds coming from the prevention of emissions to air, according to the EPA.

Dr. Ling's work has had an international impact. After first presenting his ideas in 1976 at a conference sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Sweden adopted pollution prevention as a formal part of their environmental policies.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.