By John Showalter

Air pollution from expanding ports in the Pacific Northwest is a growing concern among state and federal regulatory authorities, port officials, industry executives and longshore workers. At a series of recent gatherings of these groups in Washington State, members of the ILWU and ILWU Canada spoke out about their personal experiences with air pollution at the ports and the union’s campaign to encourage ship-owning companies to clean up their emissions.

At the Faster Freight Cleaner Air Puget Sound Conference, May 16, in Seattle, Michael Jagielski of Tacoma Longshore Local Local 23 and Albert LeMonnier, 2nd Vice President of ILWU Canada, told attendees how longshore workers are being unnecessarily exposed every day to potentially carcinogenic chemicals found in the soot emitted by ships, trucks and yard equipment operating at Pacific Northwest ports. In two panels at the conference, each longshoreman offered his advice to regulators and industry representatives about how ports and their tenants can make progress on cleaning up this pollution with emerging technologies, many of which were on display in the conference exhibitors’ room.

“We must combine a growing economy with environmental protections,” said Washington State Department of Ecology Executive Director and conference keynote speaker Jay Manning.

“We’re the canaries in the coalmine,” Jagielski said. “The more I learned about the dangers I was exposing myself to as a crane driver each time I breathed in that stack gas, the more concerned I became about my health. I want to be around to teach my grandkids how to play golf.”

LeMonnier said that Vancouver, British Columbia is now facing the same kind of air quality problems that have long plagued Los Angeles due to its bowl-shaped topography which traps dirty air in its basin. He said that the large volume of bulk cargo ships docking at the Port of Vancouver often leads to more ship idling and more air pollution from their auxiliary engines since, on average, it takes longer to unload this type of cargo than containerized cargo.
Jagielski and Le Monnier became involved with air pollution as a health issue for ILWU members several years ago. After using the air pollution issue in a training scenario at a 2005 coastwise communications training, Jagielski discussed the union’s Saving Lives campaign to improve port air quality with the Port of Tacoma’s Port Commissioners. The advocacy campaign’s goal is to see ship-owning companies reduce their smokestack emissions by at least 20 percent by 2010.

Jagielski and Local 19 President Herald Ugles then met with Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (PSCAA) Executive Director, Dennis McLerran and the manager of its Air Resources Board, Dave Kirchener in May 2006. They started a dialogue about what kind of air toxics union members might be exposed to in the course of their workday and how the union and the agency could work together. Diesel particulate matter is a known carcinogen, contributes to such respiratory diseases as asthma and emphysema and has recently been shown to be a factor in early heart attacks.

Both Jagielski and LeMonnier represent ILWU and ILWU Canada on the Puget Sound Mar-itime Air Quality Forum—a group comprised of elected and regulatory agency officials, port officials, shipping industry executives and labor representatives—whose regional efforts target reducing vehicle and vessel emissions in maritime goods movement by 70 per cent by 2010. The Forum’s first task was a recently completed emissions inventory of Puget Sound trucks, port equipment and vessels which will help guide solutions to reduce their emissions.

Jagielski was also recently appointed to Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma’s 26-member Climate Action Task Force. According to the City of Tacoma’s website, the task force’s goal is to “…reduce greenhouse gases and curb global warming in accordance with the Kyoto Protocols”. Jagielski and Vance Lelli at Local 23 are members of the task force’s Transportation Subcommittee. The Climate Action Task Force was modeled on a similar task force set up by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and has been endorsed by the US Council of Mayors.

With new regulations coming into effect in California for auxiliary fuel sulfur content and more shipping lines like American President Lines and Maersk voluntarily shifting to lower-sulfur fuels and experimenting with alternative marine power (AKA “cold-ironing) for docked ships at California and Pacific Northwest ports, the collective efforts of the ILWU, the ports and industry appear to be paying off, albeit gradually, in terms of cleaning up port air.

“The slow persistence of our campaign’s effect on shipping industry practices makes me feel like we are doing something,” said Jagielski “like water dripping in a cave.”