In 2016, ships calling on The Northwest Seaport Alliance released 764 fewer tons of diesel exhaust into the air than they did five years before—enough pollution to outweigh three rubber-tired gantry cranes.

Ports and the shipping industry have worked to improve Puget Sound’s air quality for more than a decade, and the alliance’s latest emissions inventory shows substantial progress toward that goal.

Diesel particulate matter (DPM) has decreased by 80 percent per ton of cargo since 2005. Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are down 19 percent, and other harmful pollutants have declined, as well. With additional reductions needed to meet the region’s ambitious targets for the future, the alliance remains busy exploring potential partnerships and technology to make its operations even cleaner.

A commitment to cut emissions

Maritime activities account for about a fourth of the region’s diesel exhaust, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which helped bring ports in Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia, together to measure their combined emissions for the first time in 2005. The ports of Seattle and Tacoma joined other organizations forming the Puget Sound Maritime Air Forum to safeguard public health and the environment—as well as to protect the economic development central to their mission.

At that time, the industry watched anxiously as regulators implemented severe restrictions at ports in Southern California because of deteriorating air quality in Los Angeles. If the Puget Sound region were to reach non-attainment status under federal air pollution rules, regulators could deny its ports access to grants, restrict development projects and cause business impacts adding up to millions of dollars. Even though the region’s air was significantly cleaner than the air in Los Angeles, the Northwest ports needed to collaborate to help keep it that way.

“The idea was, how can we proactively and voluntarily come up with a strategy where we can be a good steward of the environment, be a good neighbor, and also be out in front of these issues so we’re not facing the same issues as Southern California,” said Jason Jordan, Port of Tacoma’s environmental programs director.

Three ports agreed on reduction goals for several pollutants in 2007, leaving each port to find solutions best suited to their needs. They also set targets related to stakeholder outreach, port administration and emissions upgrades for multiple categories of equipment. Taken together, these efforts aimed to cut diesel particulate pollution per ton of cargo 80 percent by 2020, while reducing GHG emissions by 15 percent.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance devotes three full-time staff to air quality, which has become integrated in all aspects of operations. At the same time, Jordan noted that cutting emissions has become a priority of shippers and their customers: “Greening up their supply chain has been extremely important for a lot of these companies.”

Target and Walmart, for instance, both announced climate initiatives for their supply chains last year. The latter is working with suppliers to cut 1 billion tons of emissions by 2030. “When we go talk to the beneficial cargo owners they’re very interested, and it’s very important to them that everyone in the supply chain is doing everything they can,” Jordan said.

Ships, sulfur and CO2

Ocean-going vessels (OGVs) were the region’s largest maritime source of air pollution in 2011, accounting for 71 percent of diesel particulates and 44 percent of greenhouse gases. When the NWSA examined its OGV emissions for 2016, these pollutants decreased by 87 percent and 29 percent, respectively, from 2005 levels, thanks in large part to the North American Emission Control Area (ECA). Established by the International Maritime Organization in 2012, the ECA now requires ships in American coastal waters to use low-sulfur fuel that cuts DPM pollution by three-quarters and reduces sulfur oxide emissions by 97 percent.

NWSA’s Graham VanderSchelden, who oversees work on the new emissions inventory, noted that similar regulations also drove down port emissions from rail. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began requiring locomotives to use ultra-low sulfur diesel after 2014. The Port of Tacoma started using low-sulfur fuel in cargo-handling equipment it owns in 2005, before it was required by law, and began using a biodiesel blend in 2008. Harbor craft are also polluting less, VanderSchelden said, and DPM from the cargo-handling fleet has declined, as well, after engine and emissions equipment upgrades.

Trucks are the second-largest producers of greenhouse gases at the region’s ports and were responsible for 28 percent of GHG emissions in 2011. In response, NWSA facilities have phased out trucks with older engines over several years. To help owners buy newer equipment, the alliance administered a program offering up to $27,000 to scrap outdated trucks, taking 413 older vehicles off the road. Leaders at the NWSA continue to discuss the best way to reach its ultimate goal of making all trucks at the ports meet 2007 EPA standards. Compared to standards for 1994, the newer vehicles reduce diesel particulates by a factor of 10. The diesel emissions can contribute to cardiovascular disease and lung cancer.

“We’re always concerned about our impacts on public health,” VanderSchelden said. “I think sustainability and climate are big issues as well. And greenhouse gas emissions are always important to us, the public and globally.”

“The idea was, how can we proactively and voluntarily come up with a strategy where we can be a good steward of the environment, be a good neighbor, and also be out in front of these issues so we’re not facing the same issues as Southern California.”

Jason Jordan, Port of Tacoma’s environmental programs director

Looking ahead

With the latest emissions numbers in hand, the NWSA now faces its responsibility to meet regional targets for 2020, as well as its commitment to honor the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

The alliance also needs solutions that fit the business plans of its terminal operators, drayage companies, shipping lines and other stakeholders that conduct business at its facilities.
To that end, the NWSA continues to pursue a broad range of initiatives and pilot programs to reduce emissions. These include:

• Shore power: Any time the alliance upgrades a wharf, such as the reconfiguration of Pier 4 in Tacoma, the project includes infrastructure to make the facility shore-power capable in the future. Use of shore power or an equivalent way to offset emissions will be a requirement at Terminal 5 in Seattle, once complete.
• Natural gas conversions: In the South Harbor, Puget Sound Energy is building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility to provide fuel for newly modified TOTE Maritime Alaska ships and potentially other vessels. Compared to diesel, LNG cuts particulate pollution by more than 90 percent and greenhouse gases by 35 percent.
• Electric cargo-handling equipment: Four new hybrid diesel-electric straddle carriers arrived in Tacoma in December, shortly after the arrival of a fully-electric hostler as part of a pilot program. NWSA staff also are exploring the potential of fully-electric straddle carriers and rubber-tired gantry cranes.
• Operations Service Center: A dedicated NWSA team works with port users daily to improve efficiency, including measures to reduce truck idling. After discontinuing the DrayQ app at the end of 2017, the service center turned its attention to research alternative technologies that can track port traffic and improve turn times.

This year, the alliance will craft an update to its clean air strategy with new goals. Sara Cederberg, who manages air quality and sustainable practices for the NWSA, said this will include a glide path to targets set for 2050 as the Puget Sound maritime industry looks to the environmental challenges of the decades ahead.

“We are planning to engage a broad range of stakeholders – certainly all of our industry partners and also other local governments and community organizations – to really help us prioritize where to spend our efforts in the short term, but also help paint a vision for what we want our ports to look like long-term,” she said.