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October 29, 2005: Emission control a GVRD mission

Lower Mainland

Emission control a GVRD mission

The Port of Vancouver, transit and the commercial transportation industry are exploring initiatives for improving air quality

Larry Pynn

Vancouver Sun

Saturday, October 29, 2005

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

Joe Trasolini (above), mayor of Port Moody, is a GVRD-elected official concerned with air-quality issues.

Residents of municipalities located next to port operations may be in for a small breath of fresh air.

Blamed for contributing to unhealthy smog and particulate matter in the region, the growing Port of Vancouver is looking at several initiatives to improve air quality, including switching heavy dockside equipment to electric-diesel hybrids, reducing the sulphur content in fuels, and even requiring visiting ships to plug into the BC Hydro grid when in port.

"Ten years ago we weren't too concerned about it," allows Darrell Desjardin, manager of environment, port development, and infrastructure for the Vancouver Port Authority. "But we [now] take these issues seriously. We're looking at ways to reduce emissions."

That is good news for port-side communities that have accused the marine industry of dragging its feet while the rest of the region does its part for cleaner air.

But as municipal voters prepare to head to the polls Nov. 19, they realize they are limited in their ability to force the port's hand on what are often national and international issues.

Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini, vice-chair of the Greater Vancouver Regional District's planning and environment committee, has travelled to exotic destinations as far afield as China and South America, and always comes home appreciating this region's air quality.

Rapid transit initiatives, along with the phasing in of natural gas-powered buses are all positive moves to further reduce pollutants in the region.

He fears these measures stand to be offset by pollution sources such as the marine sector, where improvements are delayed by the need to work with the international shipping community.

"We can't wait 10 years for action," Trasolini said in an interview. "In my opinion, it's too far in the future. We in the GVRD have been doing all we can to limit emissions. . . . We enjoy better air quality, but the threat is there from outside sources that are not within our control."

Morris Mennell, head of air-quality management for Environment Canada, confirmed that the Port of Vancouver is behind ports such as Los Angeles, Seattle and Juneau, which have already started to connect some visiting ships, from container to cruise operations, to shore-based electrical power.

"You have to be pretty careful if the tourists can't see the mountains," Mennell said of Alaska.

Low-level ozone, or smog, along with particulates measuring 2.5 microns -- microscopic particles, the size of a fleck of dust -- are coming under special scrutiny as a health threat in our region. (A micron is 0.001

millimetres.)

When particulates are inhaled deep into the lungs in sufficient quantities, they can lead to cardiac and respiratory diseases such as asthma, bronchitis and emphysema.

To better monitor the presence of such particulate matter, air-quality officials have boosted their detection capability at 30 monitoring stations in the GVRD and Fraser Valley Regional District, one-third of which are now capable of detecting particulates measuring 2.5 microns.

Automated digital cameras are also being used to better calculate the relationship between contaminant levels and visibility.

"Some of our highest readings for particulate matter are on Halloween," allows Ken Reid, GVRD ambient air analyst.

The 2003 annual report of the provincial health officer conservatively pegged the premature death toll from air pollution in B.C. at 140 to 400 deaths per year, of which approximately half are due to outdoor air pollution and the other half due to indoor air pollution, mainly second-hand smoke.

Air pollution is also responsible for 700 to 2,000 hospital admissions and 900 to 2,700 emergency-room visits annually, the report concluded. The health costs amount to at least $167 million a year.

A follow-up report by the B.C. Lung Association in 2005 predicted that a 10-per-cent worsening of emissions of particulates measuring 2.5 microns in a decade in the lower Fraser Valley would lead on average to more than 132,000 days on which individuals experienced acute respiratory symptoms.

On the other hand, more than $1 billion could be saved over a 10-year period from a 10-per-cent reduction in emissions of such particulates, the association concluded.

The GVRD predicts that air pollution from shipping will continue to worsen in the coming years unless something is done. "The port is growing, and providing a challenge to air quality," confirms Hugh Kellas, the GVRD's manager of policy and planning.

Port-related pollution sources include not just the visiting ships, but railways, trucks and the heavy equipment, such as cranes and fork lifts, used on the docks to transfer cargo back and forth.

Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are working on a new initiative, Sulphur Emission Control Areas, setting sulphur emission limits on bunker fuel used by ocean-going ships plying coastal waters. But any concrete action could still be years away.

Ottawa in the meantime has mandated that the sulphur content in diesel fuel used by off-road equipment such as fork lifts, gantry cranes and bomb carts

-- tractor-trailer units used for transporting containers from dock to terminal -- will drop from the current unregulated level to 500 parts per million in 2007 and to 15 ppm in 2010.

Desjardin said the port is looking at voluntarily using cleaner fuels, in hopes of reducing emission levels where feasible to 15 ppm in 2006.

Terminal Systems Inc., the operator of Deltaport container facility at Roberts Bank, is already running low-sulphur diesel, of about 150 ppm, on its tractor-trailer units. With a port operation typically burning five to 10 million litres per month, emissions can be dramatic, he said.

TSI is also experimenting with hybrid electric-diesel rubber-tired gantry cranes, which, if proven successful, could be used throughout the port.

Ceramic filters on diesel exhaust units, used in combination with ultra-low sulphur diesel, are also being examined to further reduce emissions.

As part of the planned Deltaport expansion, the port is looking at visiting ships connecting with the BC Hydro grid rather than continuing to pollute while idling at dock while maintaining on-board functions such as lighting, air-conditioning units, and waste-water treatment systems.

"It's a fairly large power requirement," Desjardin said. "They're like a small city block. You can't just suddenly turn it off."

Elsewhere in the Port of Vancouver, officials are experimenting with a fuel additive that results in a cleaner burn and lower emissions for diesel-generating systems on ships at dock.

Diesel engines are designed to run on high-sulphur fuel, the sulphur acting as a lubricant, Desjardin said, noting that lowering the sulphur content requires modifications to the engine design.

Health concerns about diesel emissions, which have been linked to cancer, are not restricted to marine traffic.

Zorik Pirveysian, air-quality division manager for GVRD, says municipal fleets of larger vehicles in the region are also being retrofitted increasingly with diesel oxidation catalysts. The technology is said to reduce particulate emissions by 40 per cent.

At the provincial level, the B.C. government has failed to pass the necessary legislation that would allow ticketing of commercial diesel trucks for pollution offences.

The AirCare On-Road program currently has two enforcement units -- one funded through AirCare, operated by a TransLink subsidiary, and the other through the ministry of transportation -- that conduct spot checks on diesel trucks, but lack the ability to issue tickets.

"They are doing an inform-not-enforce type of operation," confirmed TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie. "If they see somebody emitting excessively, they'll pull them over, and will do the inspection. But there is no requirement at this point to go get anything fixed."

Hardie noted that many trucks burning dirty fuels also have mechanical problems, which can result in fines.

Trasolini figures that if owners of cars have to go through AirCare to ensure their vehicles are burning efficiently, commercial operators should have to do the same.

"This is a sore point," he said. "There is no check and balance on that. I put it on the shoulders of the provincial government. Are we serious about air quality?"

Hu Wallis, director of the province's water, air and climate change branch, said the issue of responsibility for AirCare On-Road and the potential need for legislative teeth are part of continuing discussions, but that he has no timetable for any changes to the program.

lpynn@png.canwest.com

Municipal Elections.

C The Vancouver Sun 2005

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/story.html...