Northwest ports approve strategy to cut down maritime air emissions

The Port of Seattle Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a joint strategy with the Port of Tacoma and the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to cut down on the maritime industry's air emissions.

At that same meeting, the commission decided to impose a temporary moratorium on a $400 million project to build a consolidated building near Sea-Tac Airport for rental car operations, which currently share space in the parking garage.

The project is the second to be delayed by the commission's commitment to follow the recommendation made by the Washington state Auditor's damning review of the port's construction management, which found the port rife with waste and vulnerable to fraud and abuse.

The rental car industry passionately pled to keep the project on track after having spent more than a decade negotiating its resolution.

"Please do not throw out the baby with the bathwater, simply because it is the politically expedient response," said Lorie Tallarico, the director of properties for the Avis Budget Rental Car Group, who attended on behalf of the entire rental car industry. "It's a knee-jerk response that, in our view, will not save money, which should be the ultimate goal."

Citing that the bonds the port would issue to pay for the project would be repaid by fees paid by rental car companies, Tallarico said, "the taxpayers of King County do not pay one dime for this project. We and our customers are the primary stakeholders in this project that will become a major asset to the port."

But the majority of commissioners said they needed a detailed plan for adhering to the audit's recommendations before they could move forward.

"I feel that we owe the public a recognition of the fact that these audit findings constitute a serious challenge to the port: we are in a crisis of credibility and reputation and of being able to perform the ability to spend public money wisely," Commissioner Gael Tarleton said. "I fully appreciate the fact that delays cost money, but delays also ensure that we will not waste money in the future."

Port of Seattle Chief Executive Tay Yoshitani said he was keeping his staff on the job over the weekend to get the plan before the commission by February 5th, which would be weeks in advance of when the commission would be asked to authorize $5 million to open the bidding process for the rental car building, which was slated to begin construction this year.

"At this point, I do think it is appropriate for staff to impose a temporary moratorium on this project until we get all the audit issues under control," Yoshitani said. "We are investing every moment of our time doing this."

The audit has caught the port's commission and staff during an upswing in airport projects and environmental actions, including the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, the joint strategy between the ports of Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver to reduce their maritime emissions.

That decision took place a week after the Port of Tacoma affirmed the same commitment to reducing pollution at its seaport, and nine months after the two Puget Sound ports released an inventory of one year's worth of maritime activity-related air emissions.

That study - which involved various local, state and federal agencies as well as private industry - found that the ocean-going vessels, tugs and barges, trucks, trains and cargo-handling equipment that call at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma produce 28 percent of the diesel particulate matter emissions measured in the Puget Sound region.

Diesel particulate matter drives up to 80 percent of the cancer risk from breathing air toxics in the region and aggravates conditions like asthma, a condition the American Lung Association found afflicting one in ten Washingtonians.

The ports' emissions strategy seeks, for the most part, voluntary compliance by companies to switch to lower sulfur fuels and make engine and equipment modifications to achieve reductions in air pollution.

However, for the first time the port also said it will make truck emissions reductionsmandatory in response to community and industry protests that voluntary standards would be unevenly appliedand ineffective. Howthe port plans to implementsuch a mandatory standard, already in place in Vancouver, is not yet known; a full report is due back to the commission by mid-2008.