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Los Angeles Port Air Monitoring Data Show Sharp Drop in Diesel Exhaust Pollutants

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New data from four air quality monitoring stations in and around the Port of Los Angeles show concentrations of elemental carbon in the port area air fell in 2012 to the lowest levels since the port began collecting data in 2005. Elemental carbon is used as an indicator of diesel particulate matter, or DPM, which is the soot produced by the combustion of diesel fuel. 

For calendar year 2012, elemental carbon was down by 72 percent in Wilmington compared to calendar year 2006, which was the first full year of monitoring data collected. The San Pedro monitoring station also showed a significant decrease of 61 percent. These drops in elemental carbon happened even as cargo volumes at the port have rebounded.  In 2012, the port handled 1.7 percent more cargo than in 2011, but elemental carbon at both the Wilmington monitoring and San Pedro stations were 39 percent and 18 percent lower, respectively, than in 2011. 

According to the port, concentrations of another key air pollutant related to diesel exhaust, PM2.5 (particles less than 2.5 microns in size) met federal and state standards for the fifth straight year. In addition to port and industry initiatives, state air quality regulations also have helped reduce emissions from the diesel engines that power much of the goods movement through the San Pedro Bay port complex.

Since 2005, the port has operated four air quality measurement stations: one in San Pedro, another in Wilmington, and two inside the port complex, including one in the middle of port operations. The stations measure air quality both in the port complex and in the communities downwind of the port, where air quality is affected by emissions from the ships, trucks, terminal equipment, harbor vessels and railroad locomotives that move cargo through the port.

The air quality monitoring stations measure, in real time, ambient concentrations of several key air pollutants, including two sizes of particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5). In addition, 24-hour integrated samples of particulates are collected on filters every third day for detailed chemical analyses, which cannot be done with real-time monitors. Those analyses include measuring the amount of elemental carbon in the filters.

Each station also collects wind speed, wind direction and temperature data so that the air pollutant data can be used in models that track the movement of pollutants. The real-time data can be viewed at caap.airsis.com and past filter-based data back to 2005 can be viewed on the port’s website at www.portoflosangeles.org/environment/air_quality.asp.  
 

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