A container ship as long as three football fields glides into the still waters of the Port of Los Angeles, where it disgorges sneakers, electronic components and a plume of black exhaust.
With each docking and departure, one ship pumps an average of four tons of pollutants into the skies. On a typical day, 16 container ships arrive at the port complex that stretches from San Pedro to Long Beach, releasing more smog-forming gases than 1 million cars, or more than twice as much as all of the power plants in the Los Angeles Basin.
No other facility produces more air pollution than the port complex, and air quality officials have known it for a long time. Though strict regulations have been imposed on polluters across California, the L.A. ports have gone largely unregulated for a variety of reasons, from lack of jurisdiction over foreign-flagged ships to fears of losing trade to other cities.
Now, officials are struggling to craft new rules that will protect people's health without jeopardizing the economic benefits of being the nation's busiest waterfront. There's a lot on the line.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex is a gateway to one quarter of a trillion dollars in Pacific Rim and Latin American trade. As trade continues to grow, ship emissions are expected to double in the next 20 years in Southern California.
And the big cargo ships are not the only serious source of pollution. Tugboats, harbor craft and fishing fleets add 11 tons daily, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Onshore, hundreds of trucks laden with computers from Japan, toys from China and furniture from Malaysia rumble over the Vincent Thomas Bridge toward distant cities. Smaller "yard tractors" scurry like beetles stacking containers on the docks under a pall of haze that stretches to the Long Beach skyline and beyond.
Though nearby communities such as Wilmington and San Pedro get the worst of it, onshore breezes blow the pollution inland, where it forms ozone, an acutely toxic gas, and haze that blankets suburban valleys. Smog causes bronchitis, lung irritation and chest pains. Microscopic specks of unburned fuel are linked to cancer, asthma and heart attacks.
Farther north, Santa Barbara County's chief smog fighter, Douglas Allard, has identified 102 smoky ships as "frequent fliers." They are vessels that routinely visit California waters, traveling the shipping lanes between the Channel Islands and the mainland, although there are no plans to clean them up.
