Even before the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach unveiled an ambitious clean-air plan last week, an international agency that regulates the global shipping industry was considering whether to strengthen outdated emissions standards for cargo vessels — a move that could significantly improve air quality. "There should be more stringent standards," said Eivind Vagslid, an environmental official with the International Maritime Organization, which began considering a revision of its 1997 regulations in April. "The levels of the past were set quite leniently to get nations to ratify them and to make them technically achievable."

Over the years, the world fleet of cargo vessels has emerged as a leading source of sulfur oxides, particulates and nitrogen oxides. Many ships emit as much exhaust per day as 12,000 cars. The emissions have been linked to global warming, respiratory illnesses and premature deaths. In the Los Angeles area, studies show that diesel exhaust from trucks, locomotives, heavy equipment and ships causes cancer and is responsible for 70% of pollution-related health problems and hundreds of deaths every year.

If tougher maritime organization standards are adopted, they could reduce a large source of air pollution for the Los Angeles-Long Beach harbor complex, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, which are next to a main shipping lane, and Bay Area ports such as Oakland. Almost 5,800 ships called at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last year, releasing roughly 14,000 tons of air pollutants. In 2004, more than 7,200 ships sailed past Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, releasing almost 16,000 tons of pollutants. Air quality officials in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties fear that projected growth in ship traffic will erase gains they have made in cutting pollution from onshore sources such as automobiles, manufacturers and businesses.

"It s good to see the talks are going on," said Tom Murphy, a manager at the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District. "The current IMO standards are nonstandards." Based in London, the International Maritime Organization develops international standards for ship safety, security, vessel design, environmental protection and crew training. It has 166 member nations, including the United States. The agencys rules are enforced by port authorities, coast guards and maritime agencies around the world.

The organization could adopt revised standards as early as next July. Rather than wait for the maritime association to act, port officials in Los Angeles and Long Beach have forged ahead with their own clean-air plan — a draft of which was announced at a June 28 news conference. The $2-billion, five-year proposal seeks to reduce sooty diesel emissions from cargo ships, trains and trucks by more than 50%. Harbor officials hope to achieve those goals by specifying conditions in terminal leases, revising port rules and adjusting harbor fees as an incentive. The plan, expected to be approved by both harbor commissions in September, calls for international cargo ships to use low-sulfur fuel within 20 nautical miles of local ports and to cut nitrogen oxide emissions by 45%.

Meanwhile, the maritime agency will continue formulating new emissions standards to significantly reduce sulfur oxides, particulates and nitrogen oxides from oceangoing vessels. Tougher measures to limit air pollution from incineration of shipboard waste and from tanker operations — such as the loading and unloading of crude oil, petroleum products and hazardous chemicals — also are on the agenda. For the first time, Vagslid said, the IMO will consider regulating particulates and whether to require ships built before 2000 to retrofit their main engines with air pollution controls, such as scrubbers and catalytic converters. The current standards apply only to new ships and those being refitted with new engines.

Vagslid said the effort is the result of pressure from European nations interested in improving the maritime agencys current fuel and emissions standards, which have been widely viewed as ineffective. Those regulations were formulated in 1997, but it took eight years for member nations to ratify them. They finally went into effect in May 2005. The 1997 regulations set the sulfur content for ship fuel at 4.5% — noticeably above the 3% sulfur content of fuel generally available worldwide. The current International Maritime Organization standards also call for a 25% to 30% reduction in nitrogen oxides in new engines placed in ships starting in 2000. But environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency question whether those regulations will be effective.
(Por Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times 06/07/2006)