L.A. harbor commission OKs terminal expansion - Backers cite 'green' elements, but residents voice concerns.

About 200 people attended the commission hearing at Banning's Landing Community Center in Wilmington. The panel voted 4 to 0 to certify the environmental impact report for the $1.5-billion upgrade at the TraPac Terminal. Public testimony on the matter stretched more than six hours.

"This is the best thing that's happened here in two years," said Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. "We're on our way. We're going to do it. We're going to clean it up," she said with a broad grin.

Andy Mardesich, president of the San Pedro and Peninsula Homeowners Coalition, was not impressed.

"This EIR continues to conduct port business in the very same manner that it always has," he testified, "and that, my friends, is with a resolute dedication to conduct commerce without conscience."

The commission's action elated business leaders led by Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President Gary Toebben, who had strongly endorsed the project.

He predicted that the expanded terminal would create as many as 6,000 new jobs, generate $200 million a year in tax revenue and provide a template for green-lighting at least 15 port expansion projects long delayed by other environmental challenges.

"If it fails," Toebben said before the vote, "it will be a dramatic failure for the concept of green growth at the ports."

The proposal would require various measures aimed at combating pollution in the Los Angeles and Long Beach port complex, the largest fixed source of air pollution in Southern California. For example, diesel-powered cranes would have to be replaced with less-polluting electrical cranes.

Some port projects have been held up since 2001, when the Los Angeles City Council approved plans for a 174-acre terminal for China Shipping Container Lines Co., prompting lawsuits by environmental groups that wanted assurances that environmental reviews would be thorough.

That suit ended in 2003 with the port and city announcing an unusual $60-million settlement with the environmental groups. Most of the money will go to a wide array of projects to reduce air pollution.