Port Drivers Back Plan for Less-polluting Trucks

By Louis Sahagun and Ronald D. White, Times Staff Writers
2:37 PM PDT, June 5, 2007

About 300 drivers of the dirtiest and oldest trucks servicing the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex gathered in Wilmington this morning to support a plan to impose stricter pollution standards on harbor vehicles.

Port authorities and environmentalists were encouraged by the strong show of support for the plan designed to cut air pollution from trucks by 80% within five years.

"It's a surprising turnout," said Rafael Pizarro of the Coalition for Clean Air, an advocacy group. "You don't see this many truck drivers agree on anything outside of a strike."

Many of the independent drivers, mostly Spanish-speaking immigrants, who filled an auditorium at Banning's Landing stepped up to a lectern to personally urge a joint panel of Long Beach and Los Angeles port commissioners to approve the plan.

The proposed program would scrap and replace the oldest trucks, and retrofit the others, with the assistance of a port-sponsored grant subsidy.

Among the speakers was Edgar Sanchez, 48, who said it would be all but impossible to clean up his rig without a subsidy. He is among the area's 16,000 mostly low-income drivers working at the nation's busiest port complex.

"Before, we didn't have the courage or the confidence to tell people how we feel, out of fear we'd be fired or labeled as troublemakers," Sanchez said. "Not anymore. We see the smoke pouring out of our trucks, and we breathe it all day, every day. But we also work long hours at minimum rates. We can be fired at any moment, like slaves without a voice."

Sanchez added, "Now we have the guts and the anger to say that on this issue, we stand with the authorities."

The San Pedro Bay ports spew more soot and smog than half a million cars, a refinery and a power plant combined, port authorities said.

Trucks produce 30% to 40% of that pollution, which has been linked to higher risks of cancer, bronchitis and other respiratory ailments. One study determined that diesel-related premature deaths in California exceed the number of homicides.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com
ron.white@latimes.com

Original article at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-truckers5jun06,0,3167656.story?coll=la-home-local