By Brett Rosenberg
July 16, 2007

Several mayors and guests attending the 75th Annual Meeting of The U.S. Conference of Mayors enjoyed a waterside tour of America’s largest port, the Port of Los Angeles. The port, celebrating a century of operations this year, is the leading seaport in the nation in terms of shipping container volume and cargo value. With over 7,500 acres, 43 miles of waterfront, 270 berths and 26 terminals, the port generates 259,000 regional jobs and $8.4 billion in annual wages and tax revenue.

Mayors learned of ongoing plans and initiatives to improve the overall environmental quality of the port and its neighbors. By electrifying ships in their berths rather than allowing them to run on internal high polluting diesel-powered auxiliary engines; switching trucks, locomotives and other cargo handling equipment to biodiesel and other cleaner fuels, the port’s overall emissions of greenhouse gases, particulates, sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen will decrease substantially while the amount of incoming container traffic is anticipated to triple over the next 20 years. Similarly, through a series of oil spill prevention efforts, stormwater runoff collection projects and infrastructure overhauls, the port has the best water quality of any industrialized port worldwide.

The tour also included a discussion of growing security needs, as global trade continues to expand and cargo capacity grows ever larger. The Port of Los Angeles has received nearly $27 million over the five rounds of federal homeland security grant funding since June of 2002, and has invested over $30 million in additional and matching funds of its own. Security measures include a highly trained port police force with broadband capability for data transfer and surveillance; 3-D imaging sonar; underwater submersibles; diver communications systems and enhanced improvised explosive device detection and prevention systems. By the end of the year, the port will install “radiation portals” at all container terminals that will scan every container; containers registering certain types of radiation above specified levels will be held for additional screening and inspection.