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Quality of our lives in port's hands The potential exists for further poisoning of the air and the permanent ruin of the river.

Published in the Stockton Record on 09/10/04

By Michael Fitzgerald
Record Columnist
Published Friday, September 10, 2004

Stockton's port is at the heart of the city's history. It may be an even bigger player in the city's future.

The port wants to triple its size. Its proposed expansion is both exciting and scary. Exciting because the port could become more of a world powerhouse and a bonanza of desperately needed jobs.

Scary because the proposed expansion could wreak a most serious ecological disaster.

It could be a real annoyance, too, to several Stockton neighborhoods across the river from the wharves. Residents fear a constant dervish dance of forklifts beeping through the night, as well as roaring generators, glaring lights and air pollution from ships and trucks alike.

For this last reason, mostly, several neighborhood groups are suing the port to halt its expansion until it follows environmental rules. Meaning possibly halt the expansion, period. Deltakeeper, which has joined this suit, is not opposed to the expansion but wants it done the green way.

While aggro to port neighbors may be the main issue to them, it's not the main issue. The main issue is whether the port is willing and able to triple it size without wreaking an ecological disaster of Industrial Revolution proportions.

The potential exists for further poisoning of the air and the permanent ruin of the river.

A port willing and able to expand responsibly is the key.

Whether the port is willing is unclear. "We might as well work together and come up with solutions," said Lee Hieber, the port's deputy director. "Isn't that the only answer, really?"

But Deltakeeper's Bill Jennings fears the port is trying to ignore some serious consequences to nature and Valley residents. "The port has said, 'There's nothing we can do about this,' and we go on down the road." ::: Advertisement :::

The plaintiffs' lawsuit alleges numerous ways the port has tried to skirt its environmental responsibilities.

If these allegations are true, the port is playing with fire.

Consider just one issue: the increased potential for foreign species to be plunked into the Delta by visiting ships in discharged bilge.

The port's expansion will draw around 130 more ships a year, dramatically increasing not only the rate of introduction of foreign species but the likelihood of a nightmare.

If, for instance, the zebra mussel infiltrates, it will clog every pipe in the Delta, disrupting infrastructure essential to the whole state and costing billions of dollars in perpetuity. The cost of such a vast boondoggle could outweigh any economic benefits of an expanded port.

Is there a solution? Some ships can dump bilge at sea and take on Delta-friendly ballast water.

Others cannot. Can these vessels be required to have on-board water-treatment facilities? Can the port treat the water? Can the city's nearby water-treatment facility be of use?

A port willing to expand the proper way will seek a real solution.

Beyond the port's willingness is its ability -- anybody's ability -- to remedy some bad side effects of its growth.

The port would draw not only scores more ships belching the dirtiest fuels but also more than 51,000 more diesel truck and car trips every day to a Valley with the worst air in the state.

The port can require truckers not to idle while waiting. It cannot require refineries to manufacture cleaner diesel fuel. It cannot require tramp steamers to outfit smokestacks with scrubs.

Yet smog is already stunting lung growth in Valley children, causing an asthma epidemic and blotting out Sierra views.

These are but two examples from a list of serious issues, ranging from harming the river's fish by deepening the channel -- a plan regulators put on hold Thursday -- to further bogging down traffic at 18 city-area intersections and 33 freeway spots.

There may be solutions. But the port must be truly committed to facing its every impact and seeking a way to fix it.

If the port is willing and able, then its expansion should be welcomed as an exciting part of Stockton's future.

But if it is not, then its plans are too dirty a deal.

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Write Fitzgerald at P.O. Box 900, Stockton, CA 95201; phone (209) 546-8270; fax (209) 547-8186; or e-mail michaelf@recordnet.com

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