L.A., Long Beach ports inaugurate new anti-smog plan

An estimated 95% of the trucks lining up for the starting 8 a.m. shift at the adjacent Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had stickers on their windshields and doors indicating that they were in compliance with new rules restricting access to the gateway for 40% of the nation's imported goods. Trucks without stickers were turned away.

Against a backdrop of cargo ships docked beside massive cranes, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster held a news conference to inaugurate the Clean Truck Program forged by environmentalists, drivers, shippers, community leaders and the ports during two years of contentious debates and legal challenges.

"Ports across the world have their eyes on us as a model for the future because today the cornerstone of the world's most comprehensive plan to clean up a major port hits the road," Villaraigosa said. "We will not disappoint them, nor will we disappoint all the Angelenos who suffer from emphysema, throat cancer and mouth cancer caused by this pollution."

Later, port authorities and reporters gathered at a nearby Port of Los Angeles recycling yard to witness the crushing and scrapping of two trucks barred by the program. Among the onlookers was Jorge Sibrian, 57, a port trucker since 1992 and former owner of one of the rigs that was ripped to pieces by a massive iron claw, then shredded into scrap metal.

Wearing a blue hard hat and safety goggles, Sibrian nodded toward the wreckage and said, "That's my baby. I had her 12 years. She's been everywhere."

"Everything comes to an end, and this is the end for her," added Sibrian, who sold the truck to the Los Angeles port for $5,000. "Hopefully, it's for a good cause."

Under the program's first phase, trucks built before 1989 were banned as of Wednesday. When fully implemented in 2012, only trucks meeting 2007 emissions standards will be allowed to enter the ports.

Although the ports met their Oct. 1 deadline, two critical components of the program were missing. An electronic vehicle-monitoring system was not in place, and the ports had yet to start collecting the $35 per-cargo-container fee that is supposed to fund the $1.6-billion truck replacement program.