U.S., Canada seek ship pollution buffer zone

Koch

   The United States and Canada have asked the International Maritime Organization to create an "Emissions Control Area" (ECA) around the coastlines of both nations in order to reduce pollution from both foreign-flag and domestic ships.
   Lisa P. Jackson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said the United States last Friday asked the IMO to set up the 200-nautical-mile (230-mile) buffer zone within which ships would have to comply with the most stringent air pollution standards adopted by the United National agency last October when it amended Annex VI of the International Convention on the Pollution from Ships. Two ECAs exist in Europe in the Baltic Sea and North Sea.
   Under Annex, VI, the sulfur content in fuel will be stepped down from 4.5 percent to 0.5 percent globally by 2020. In ECAs, sulfur content of fuel is already limited to 1.5 percent and would step down to 0.1 percent or 1,000 parts per million by 2015. The EPA said Monday that by designating U.S. coastal waters an ECA, particulate matter and sulfur oxide pollutants would be cut by more than 85 percent.
   In addition, ships built after 2016 and operating in the ECA would have to have new engines or emission controls that would reduce nitrogen oxide pollutants by 80 percent.
   A vote on the proposed buffer zone could come as early as March 2010 at the IMO and it might enter into force by August 2012.
   The proposal is "an important and long overdue step to protect the air and water along our shores and the health of people throughout the country," said Jackson Monday at a press conference on a pier at the Port Newark-Elizabeth complex of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
   While noting that ports help drive local and global economies, she said, "The constant traffic of ocean-going vessels has brought with it some very serious challenges. In this area alone, more than 6.5 million people are exposed to elevated concentrations of diesel fuel emissions, and this is only one of 150 major U.S. ports," Jackson said. "About 40 of these ports are in areas that do not meet federal air quality standards.
   "Cities that make their livelihoods from this industry are prone to suffering mordantly high rates of cancer, asthma and other diseases. Children in these communities feel the effects of pollution in the air they breathe and the water they drink. Residents and workers bear the brunt of harmful emissions and dangerous toxins. And the greatest burden of the emissions from oceangoing vessels falls disproportionately on low-income and minority households," said Jackson, adding that it was important for the EPA to act now in the face of predictions that traffic will double or triple at some ports.
   Christopher L. Koch, president of the World Shipping Council, the major trade organization for liner carriers, said, "there was no surprise in this, it has been under development for quite a while."
   Koch noted that his group had supported Annex VI, preferring an international regulatory regime rather than a patchwork of national regulations.
   But the council cautioned last year that fuel meeting the new standards will be more expensive and raise the cost of ocean transportation. Not only is distillate fuel with lower sulfur content much more expensive than the residual bunker fuel burned by most ships today, but oil refineries will have to make large capital expenditures to increase the amount of marine fuel needed by ships.
   Koch said the major manufacturers of marine engines have said they should be able to make engines that comply with the new nitrogen oxide pollutants by 2016.
   The EPA said additional cost of complying with the ECA regulations will be $3.2 billion by 2020.
   California ports already have a program that offers incentives to carriers who switch from high to low sulfur fuel 20 to 40 miles from the coast and the state has a pending law that would require oceangoing vessels within 24 nautical miles of California's coastline to use lower-sulfur marine distillates in their main and auxiliary engines and auxiliary boilers. The law is scheduled to go into effect July 1. Meanwhile, Amy Goldsmith, of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, said after the press conference that her group and other members of the Coalition for Healthy Ports would encourage Jackson to also take steps to curb pollution from diesel trucks.
   Richard M. Larrabee, port commerce director for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the agency is developing and plans to announce later this year a comprehensive clean air strategy aimed at reducing air pollution at the port from ships, cargo handling equipment at terminals and trucks and trains. — Chris Dupin