PORTS TOP LIST OF AREA SMOG SOURCES.

Byline: Eric Johnson and Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writers

Packed with old, dirty diesel trucks, forklifts, cranes, trains and ships, the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are the largest single source of air pollution in the four-county South Coast Air Quality Management District.

While cars and industrial sources have cut pollution, emissions at the ports are increasing and will likely jump again as the maritime center triples its traffic over the next two decades.

Community pressure and a lawsuit have pushed the ports to adopt some pollution controls in recent years, but the lack of local authority, proven technology and economic concerns make cleaning up the docks a slow, hard job.

``They have a long way to go before they address their air pollution and they're planning to triple their traffic,'' said Gail Ruderman Feuer, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. ``We can grow and still have healthy communities, but only if we take strong steps.''

Especially troubling, health advocates said, are the soot and chemicals in diesel exhaust that pose the highest cancer risk of toxic air contaminants. Diesel fumes also create particulate matter pollution, which has been linked to increased emergency room visits, heart attacks, asthma attacks and decreased lung function in children.

``There tends to be the oldest, dirtiest equipment used at the port, so you end up with a hot spot of diesel emissions,'' Feuer said.

The Port of Los Angeles is preparing a pollution inventory, including monitoring the smokestacks on ships. But based on the AQMD's best estimates, ships produce 47 tons per day of smog-forming emissions, or more than 1 million cars' worth of smog.

Trains contribute 36 tons per day of smog-forming emissions, but there is no breakdown on how much is generated from the ports.

Interstate trucks, ships and trains are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. AQMD officials have lambasted the EPA for failing to clean up those federal polluters or to provide locals with the money or power to cut emissions themselves.

State air regulators adopted strong diesel fuel and truck engine rules in the 1990s, but only 2 percent of the trucks on California roads are registered here and abide by those rules, according to the California Trucking Association. National pollution controls for newly purchased trucks don't take effect until 2006 and 2007.

For their part, EPA officials said they helped draft an international treaty to cut pollution from oceangoing ships built in 2000 and after. The U.S. Congress has not yet ratified the treaty, but EPA officials said they plan to begin working on a more stringent international agreement this year.

Port officials are feeling the heat and adopting greener programs.

They've asked ships to slow down within 20 miles of the shoreline, which has eliminated an estimated 2 tons of smog-forming emissions per day, and some high-polluting tugboats have upgraded to new engines.

A lawsuit settlement and state and local grants have provided private fleets with financial incentives to switch to cleaner fuels.

The Port of Los Angeles began offering a diesel-water blend for equipment that cut particulate matter pollution by half. At a high point, 600 pieces of equipment switched to the fuel.

And at least one commercial shipper will soon use electricity to power its system while docked, rather than diesel.

Those improvements have made the L.A.-Long Beach ports among the cleanest in the nation. ``But that's not saying much,'' said Diane Bailey, an NRDC scientist working on a report about pollution from the ports. ``It's just that in L.A. and Long Beach, there's so much pressure to do something because of the air quality there.''

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Rows of rigs line up at the Port of Long Beach. Emissions will likely rise as port traffic increases in the next two decades.

Brittany Murray/Staff Photographer