The Port of Long Beach has extended the public review period on a draft environmental study of Pier S, a proposal to develop a state-of-the-art, $650 million container shipping facility on Terminal Island. The Port will accept written comments until December 2, 2011, providing additional time for groups, individuals and agencies to submit comments on the document. The original deadline was November 15, 2011.
The proposed Pier S shipping terminal development on a vacant 160-acre parcel would utilize the latest technology and practices for reducing air pollution from cargo operations. The new facility would generate and sustain up to 40,000 new permanent jobs in the region, as well as thousands of temporary construction jobs.
The Port released the draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) and supplemental environmental impact report (SEIR) on September 16, analyzing the impacts of the proposed development, and the mitigation measures that would be used to address those impacts.
More information on the project, including electronic versions of the environmental reports, can be found at www.polb.com/Pier_S.
The environmental documents are available for review at: www.polb.com/ceqa
Written comments can be submitted to Richard D. Cameron, Director of Environmental Planning, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, 90802; or Cameron@polb.com.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Seaspan Shipyards Win NSPS Non-Combat Contract
Canada's Federal Government has chosen Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards as the prime contractor to build the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy (NSPS) program’s non-combat vessels.
The $8 billion program is expected to pump billions of Canadian dollars into the local economy and create an average of 4,000 jobs over the next 8-years.
The non-combatant vessels covered by the contract include the Joint Support Ship, the Polar Icebreaker, the Offshore Oceanographic Support Vessel, and the Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels.
NSPS was devised as a long-term solution to develop Canada’s maritime capabilities. The award is based on a 30-year roadmap for the development of new ship platforms. A second award covers the design and production needs for the country’s military vessels.
“We are honored to have been chosen to provide non-combat vessels for the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard,” said Jonathan Whitworth, Seaspan CEO. “We have a long and established track record of working with the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard in building ships on time and on budget. Seaspan is committed to returning BC’s shipbuilding industry to its once-thriving roots. This award is a direct result of that commitment. We will deliver world-class ships to Canada.”
Whitworth credits the winning of the contract to the team that produced the bid and the participation of many supporters including the Government of British Columbia, local First Nations, shipyard unions and teaming partners from across Canada.
Although planning will begin immediately, construction on the new vessels will not likely start until late 2012. In the meantime, more than $150 million worth of infrastructure will be built at Seaspan’s shipyards in North Vancouver and Victoria, while vessel design work is being finalized.
In addition to the current contract, the Canadian Government has plans for a further 17 vessels which could also fall under the non-combat package.
The $8 billion program is expected to pump billions of Canadian dollars into the local economy and create an average of 4,000 jobs over the next 8-years.
The non-combatant vessels covered by the contract include the Joint Support Ship, the Polar Icebreaker, the Offshore Oceanographic Support Vessel, and the Offshore Fisheries Science Vessels.
NSPS was devised as a long-term solution to develop Canada’s maritime capabilities. The award is based on a 30-year roadmap for the development of new ship platforms. A second award covers the design and production needs for the country’s military vessels.
“We are honored to have been chosen to provide non-combat vessels for the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy and Coast Guard,” said Jonathan Whitworth, Seaspan CEO. “We have a long and established track record of working with the Canadian Navy and Coast Guard in building ships on time and on budget. Seaspan is committed to returning BC’s shipbuilding industry to its once-thriving roots. This award is a direct result of that commitment. We will deliver world-class ships to Canada.”
Whitworth credits the winning of the contract to the team that produced the bid and the participation of many supporters including the Government of British Columbia, local First Nations, shipyard unions and teaming partners from across Canada.
Although planning will begin immediately, construction on the new vessels will not likely start until late 2012. In the meantime, more than $150 million worth of infrastructure will be built at Seaspan’s shipyards in North Vancouver and Victoria, while vessel design work is being finalized.
In addition to the current contract, the Canadian Government has plans for a further 17 vessels which could also fall under the non-combat package.
Salvors Removing Oil From M/V Rena
Salvors led by Danish company Svitzer continue to pump oil from the grounded containership Rena, while on shore the incident command team is planning for any impact on the shoreline from the oil that has been leaking from the ship since it struck the Astrolabe Reef, near New Zealand's Tauranga Harbor on October 5th.
Nearly half of the oil on board the grounded Rena has been pumped off the ship, leaving approximately 700 tons in the ship, held in five different tanks.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) Salvage Unit Manager Bruce Anderson said two booster pumps installed on Sunday afternoon had sped up the pumping rate from the port tank, and salvage teams were continuing to work on ways to extract oil from the submerged starboard tank and two settling tanks in the engine room.
The salvors have loaded more equipment on the ship including a lighting system.
“This is important, because they have been working in dark, oily corridors, which is clearly risky and challenging,” Mr Anderson said.
“The lighting will make the working environment safer for the teams on board. They have also loaded heavy duty compressors to aid the pumping system.”
National On-Scene Commander Rob Service said planning teams were continuing to track the movement of between 5 and 10 metric tons that leaked from the ship overnight Saturday. He noted that while it is a relatively small amount of oil, it is the most significant amount released since the vessel shifted and spilled around 300 metric tons October 11th.
Nearly half of the oil on board the grounded Rena has been pumped off the ship, leaving approximately 700 tons in the ship, held in five different tanks.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) Salvage Unit Manager Bruce Anderson said two booster pumps installed on Sunday afternoon had sped up the pumping rate from the port tank, and salvage teams were continuing to work on ways to extract oil from the submerged starboard tank and two settling tanks in the engine room.
The salvors have loaded more equipment on the ship including a lighting system.
“This is important, because they have been working in dark, oily corridors, which is clearly risky and challenging,” Mr Anderson said.
“The lighting will make the working environment safer for the teams on board. They have also loaded heavy duty compressors to aid the pumping system.”
National On-Scene Commander Rob Service said planning teams were continuing to track the movement of between 5 and 10 metric tons that leaked from the ship overnight Saturday. He noted that while it is a relatively small amount of oil, it is the most significant amount released since the vessel shifted and spilled around 300 metric tons October 11th.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Groups Sue UP, BNSF Over Calif. Railyard Emissions
Three environmental groups, led by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), have sued the two major Southern California freight railroads over diesel pollution generated by rail operations at 17 railyards throughout California.
The suit is asking the court to force the railroads to "remediate" and "abate" the health effects of the railyard pollution by requiring the implementation of billions of dollars of new equipment and infrastructure.
The suit, which relies on a novel legal argument, seeks to have the court set a legal precedent by declaring the railyards as generators of hazardous waste. Such a precedent could open the door for similar lawsuits against any commercial operation that utilizes diesel machinery.
The NRDC, along with co-plaintiffs the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice and the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, filed the suit in the California Central District court on Tuesday.
Citing the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the NRDC's untested legal argument claims that railroads Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe are illegally disposing of hazardous waste – in the form of settled airborne diesel pollution – in communities near the railyards.
In the suit, the NRDC claims that diesel particulate matter is a hazardous material that falls under the auspices of regulation by the RCRA.
The federal RCRA gives the United States Environmental Protection Agency the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.
Diesel particulate matter, commonly seen as soot from truck smokestacks, is in reality fine particles of carbon created in the combustion process within the locomotive and yard equipment diesel engines. While these particles, some ten times smaller in diameter than a human hair, are mostly inert carbon, they also contain minute traces of numerous other chemicals and heavy metals that bind to the carbon particles.
Specifically, the suit identifies the trace chemicals and metals in the diesel particulates as the “hazardous waste” being disposed of by the railroads.
While the trace chemical components of the settled particles of diesel pollution are covered under the RCRA, the language of the RCRA does not specifically cite settled diesel pollution as a covered hazardous material.
The NRDC is requesting relief from the court in three ways: a declaration that UP and BNSF are indeed disposing of hazardous waste in the manner described by the NRDC; require the railroads to investigate the "amount, fate and transport" of diesel particulate matter from the railyards; and, require the railroads to "remediate" and "abate" the railyard diesel particulate matter emissions.
In their filing, the NRDC lists numerous remediation actions that it is asking the court to impose.
These include forcing the railroads to purchase newer cleaner-burning locomotives, invest in "electrification of major rail lines," purchase cleaner-burning yard equipment, install plug-in electrification at the railyards for all reefer units and reconfigure railyards to achieve maximum distance from operations and nearby communities.
The suit also seeks to limit locomotive idling to 15 minutes, create locomotive no-idle zones near residential areas, and monitor their operations to assure air quality.
A statement from BNSF called the suit unreasonable and pointed out that the railroad has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in reducing emissions.
The railroads have pointed out in the past that their locomotives and yard equipment all meet or surpass current air quality regulations.
In 2008, the NRDC threatened to take similar legal action against the Southern California Port of Long Beach. In a threat issued to the port, the NRDC claimed the Long Beach port was violating federal law by disposing of toxic waste in the form of diesel truck exhaust. Calling the port an “imminent and substantial endangerment to public health,” the group also charged the port with ongoing failures to remedy the emissions.
The NRDC gave the port 90 days to take immediate action or it threatened to ask a federal court to appoint a “port czar” to force the port address the diesel pollution immediately. The NRDC also threatened to ask a federal court to halt all port development, cap port throughput to existing levels, and order the port to cap emissions to current levels.
Following the 90-day period, the NRDC backed off the threat, saying that it had "worked out their issues with Long Beach."
The suit is asking the court to force the railroads to "remediate" and "abate" the health effects of the railyard pollution by requiring the implementation of billions of dollars of new equipment and infrastructure.
The suit, which relies on a novel legal argument, seeks to have the court set a legal precedent by declaring the railyards as generators of hazardous waste. Such a precedent could open the door for similar lawsuits against any commercial operation that utilizes diesel machinery.
The NRDC, along with co-plaintiffs the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice and the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, filed the suit in the California Central District court on Tuesday.
Citing the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the NRDC's untested legal argument claims that railroads Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe are illegally disposing of hazardous waste – in the form of settled airborne diesel pollution – in communities near the railyards.
In the suit, the NRDC claims that diesel particulate matter is a hazardous material that falls under the auspices of regulation by the RCRA.
The federal RCRA gives the United States Environmental Protection Agency the authority to control hazardous waste from the "cradle-to-grave." This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.
Diesel particulate matter, commonly seen as soot from truck smokestacks, is in reality fine particles of carbon created in the combustion process within the locomotive and yard equipment diesel engines. While these particles, some ten times smaller in diameter than a human hair, are mostly inert carbon, they also contain minute traces of numerous other chemicals and heavy metals that bind to the carbon particles.
Specifically, the suit identifies the trace chemicals and metals in the diesel particulates as the “hazardous waste” being disposed of by the railroads.
While the trace chemical components of the settled particles of diesel pollution are covered under the RCRA, the language of the RCRA does not specifically cite settled diesel pollution as a covered hazardous material.
The NRDC is requesting relief from the court in three ways: a declaration that UP and BNSF are indeed disposing of hazardous waste in the manner described by the NRDC; require the railroads to investigate the "amount, fate and transport" of diesel particulate matter from the railyards; and, require the railroads to "remediate" and "abate" the railyard diesel particulate matter emissions.
In their filing, the NRDC lists numerous remediation actions that it is asking the court to impose.
These include forcing the railroads to purchase newer cleaner-burning locomotives, invest in "electrification of major rail lines," purchase cleaner-burning yard equipment, install plug-in electrification at the railyards for all reefer units and reconfigure railyards to achieve maximum distance from operations and nearby communities.
The suit also seeks to limit locomotive idling to 15 minutes, create locomotive no-idle zones near residential areas, and monitor their operations to assure air quality.
A statement from BNSF called the suit unreasonable and pointed out that the railroad has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in reducing emissions.
The railroads have pointed out in the past that their locomotives and yard equipment all meet or surpass current air quality regulations.
In 2008, the NRDC threatened to take similar legal action against the Southern California Port of Long Beach. In a threat issued to the port, the NRDC claimed the Long Beach port was violating federal law by disposing of toxic waste in the form of diesel truck exhaust. Calling the port an “imminent and substantial endangerment to public health,” the group also charged the port with ongoing failures to remedy the emissions.
The NRDC gave the port 90 days to take immediate action or it threatened to ask a federal court to appoint a “port czar” to force the port address the diesel pollution immediately. The NRDC also threatened to ask a federal court to halt all port development, cap port throughput to existing levels, and order the port to cap emissions to current levels.
Following the 90-day period, the NRDC backed off the threat, saying that it had "worked out their issues with Long Beach."
VIGOR Names Quigley as Top Exec of US Fab Division
Everett Shipyard president Kevin Quigley has been named president of VIGOR Industrial’s US Fab division.
Quigley will oversee all of VIGOR’s new ship construction including ferries, advanced Coast Guard cutters, barges, fishing and cargo vessels. As US Fab president, he also will direct the company’s growing land-based and alternative energy fabrication projects.
As the fabrication division of VIGOR Industrial, US Fab builds marine and non-maritime projects in its indoor and outdoor facilities in Seattle and Portland, Ore., with additional resources in other VIGOR yards across the Pacific Northwest.
The privately owned VIGOR owns and operates major shipbuilding, repair and metal fabrication facilities in Seattle, Tacoma, Bremerton, Everett and Port Angeles, Washington, as well as the 60-acre Swan Island shipyard center in Portland, Oregon.
"The people who’ve built this company have been building ships for nearly a hundred years," Quigley said. "I’m looking forward to building on those past achievements with them and to building a great future together."
Prior to assuming his new leadership role at US Fab, Quigley was president and chief of day-to-day operations at Everett Shipyard, a VIGOR unit since February 2011. He previously served as co-president of Gear.com and head of global business development for Teledesic, a satellite joint venture of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw.
Quigley will oversee all of VIGOR’s new ship construction including ferries, advanced Coast Guard cutters, barges, fishing and cargo vessels. As US Fab president, he also will direct the company’s growing land-based and alternative energy fabrication projects.
As the fabrication division of VIGOR Industrial, US Fab builds marine and non-maritime projects in its indoor and outdoor facilities in Seattle and Portland, Ore., with additional resources in other VIGOR yards across the Pacific Northwest.
The privately owned VIGOR owns and operates major shipbuilding, repair and metal fabrication facilities in Seattle, Tacoma, Bremerton, Everett and Port Angeles, Washington, as well as the 60-acre Swan Island shipyard center in Portland, Oregon.
"The people who’ve built this company have been building ships for nearly a hundred years," Quigley said. "I’m looking forward to building on those past achievements with them and to building a great future together."
Prior to assuming his new leadership role at US Fab, Quigley was president and chief of day-to-day operations at Everett Shipyard, a VIGOR unit since February 2011. He previously served as co-president of Gear.com and head of global business development for Teledesic, a satellite joint venture of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw.
Long Beach Sees Declines in September Cargo Numbers
Cargo numbers at the Port of Long Beach took a tumble in September, with import, export and total volumes all down compared to the same month last year.
Taken in conjunction with similar September reports at other West Coast ports, the Long Beach volumes strengthen the idea that the holiday shipping season may have peaked as early as July this year. September marks the weakest month of the year since March for Long Beach, the second busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.
A recent PMM Online analysis of the past 15 years of traffic at the Long Beach port showed that August was the traditional peak month, with a slight dip in September and a jump back up to just below the peak in October before ramping down through February of the next year. The port's busiest month so far has been July.
The port handled a total of 527,175 TEUs in September, an 8.3 percent decline over the year-ago period.
On the import side, the port handled a total of 263,214 loaded inbound TEUs, a 8.9 percent drop when compared to September 2010.
The export side of the ledger also posted a 4.7 percent drop, with a total of 118,214 loaded outbound TEUs moved during the month.
For the calendar year, the port remains 0.8 percent above the first nine months of 2010, with a total of 4,603,601 TEUs moved since Jan. 1 of this year.
As previously reported, the neighboring Port of Los Angeles managed to do slightly better in September with a 0.8 percent decline in total volume over the year-ago period, a 0.2 percent drop in imports but a massive 26.6 percent increase in exports.
Taken in conjunction with similar September reports at other West Coast ports, the Long Beach volumes strengthen the idea that the holiday shipping season may have peaked as early as July this year. September marks the weakest month of the year since March for Long Beach, the second busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.
A recent PMM Online analysis of the past 15 years of traffic at the Long Beach port showed that August was the traditional peak month, with a slight dip in September and a jump back up to just below the peak in October before ramping down through February of the next year. The port's busiest month so far has been July.
The port handled a total of 527,175 TEUs in September, an 8.3 percent decline over the year-ago period.
On the import side, the port handled a total of 263,214 loaded inbound TEUs, a 8.9 percent drop when compared to September 2010.
The export side of the ledger also posted a 4.7 percent drop, with a total of 118,214 loaded outbound TEUs moved during the month.
For the calendar year, the port remains 0.8 percent above the first nine months of 2010, with a total of 4,603,601 TEUs moved since Jan. 1 of this year.
As previously reported, the neighboring Port of Los Angeles managed to do slightly better in September with a 0.8 percent decline in total volume over the year-ago period, a 0.2 percent drop in imports but a massive 26.6 percent increase in exports.
Tacoma Port Leads West Coast in Box Growth for September
The Port of Tacoma did what no other West Coast port could manage to accomplish in September – it increased its total cargo volumes over the same month last year.
The Puget Sound port turned in a 2.7 percent gain in total container volumes in September, staying in positive growth territory while ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle were all down for the month.
Like the other major West Coast ports during September, Tacoma reported a drop in imports paired with sizable growth in exports.
Tacoma port officials reported handling a total of 143,563 TEUs in September, a 2.7 percent gain over the year-ago period.
On the import side, the port handled a total of 49,578 loaded inbound TEUs in September, a 0.3 percent drop from September 2010.
Export through the port grew a sizable 20.3 percent in September, with a total of 37,993 loaded outbound TEUs moved.
The port is down 2 percent for the calendar year-to-date, with a total of 349,372 TEUs handled since Jan. 1.
The Puget Sound port turned in a 2.7 percent gain in total container volumes in September, staying in positive growth territory while ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Seattle were all down for the month.
Like the other major West Coast ports during September, Tacoma reported a drop in imports paired with sizable growth in exports.
Tacoma port officials reported handling a total of 143,563 TEUs in September, a 2.7 percent gain over the year-ago period.
On the import side, the port handled a total of 49,578 loaded inbound TEUs in September, a 0.3 percent drop from September 2010.
Export through the port grew a sizable 20.3 percent in September, with a total of 37,993 loaded outbound TEUs moved.
The port is down 2 percent for the calendar year-to-date, with a total of 349,372 TEUs handled since Jan. 1.
