Report details port pollution

For the first time, Charleston knows roughly how much poisonous gas, acid rain and smog its port creates.

The S.C. State Ports Authority on Monday released an air emissions inventory.

It is the first report of its kind in the Southeast, according to SPA officials.

The Port of Charleston accounts for up to 5 percent of air pollution within the three-county area, with ships and trucks generating the majority of that contamination.

The study, completed by the Long Beach, Calif.-based civil engineering firm Moffat & Nichol, covers a 2,500-square-mile area, from 12 nautical miles past the jetties to the outlying boundaries of Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties.

Port officials said the findings will help the SPA understand the sources and scope of pollution as it aims to improve air quality.

The SPA undertook the study as part of an agreement signed last year with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to reduce emissions. The inventory's completion coincides with the award of more than $735,000 in matching federal funds for a $1.7 million pollution-reduction project.

The inventory looks at the port's output of five pollutants in 2005. Both ships and trucks produced roughly 1,500 tons of nitrogen oxides, a precursor to ozone, which is the main component of smog. Nitrogen oxides account for 58 percent of the total emissions catalogued in the study.

Also, ships produced nearly 1,100 tons of sulfur dioxide, the second most common emission. Sulfur dioxide can cause breathing problems, especially in children and elderly people, and it contributes to acid rain and poor visibility

In 2005, more than 400 ships, mostly container carriers, made about 2,000 port calls in Charleston. The emissions inventory also took into account nearly 2 million truck trips.

The port's busiest terminal, Wando Welch in Mount Pleasant, produced the most of each type of pollutant and accounted for 70 percent of heavy-duty vehicle emissions alone.

Nancy Vinson, a program director with the Coastal Conservation League, which has been critical of the port's impact on air quality and public health, said she was glad to see the SPA looking broadly at the effects of its emissions. But at the same time, she said the 5 percent estimate is understated.

"They're probably the top air polluter in the city of Charleston," Vinson said. "In the whole tri-county area you've got big cement plants and coal-fired power plants that are much farther from people and have much taller stacks, so it's not at ground level. That's not a valid comparison."

The SPA has been working on emission-reduction projects since 2005, including replacing diesel-fueled cranes with electric cranes; switching to ultra-low sulfur diesel; and reducing truck idling.

The agency learned Friday it would receive matching grant funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency toward its $1.7 million project to further those efforts.

The money includes $1.1 million to replace engines on the SPA's 21 rubber-tired gantry cranes to potentially reduce nitrogen oxides by 57 percent and particulate matter by 39 percent. Another $450,000 will go toward technology to reduce truck idling time, and $125,000 more will be used to retrofit trucks to save fuel.

The SPA and its grant partners will pay $963,500 toward the improvements.

But Vinson said none of that money will immediately tackle pollution from ships, which account for 43 percent of the port-related emissions.

Pat Barber, owner of Superior Transportation and president of the Charleston Motor Carriers Association, said a committee that includes his group and the SPA plans to distribute money to trucking companies for power units, single-radial tires and other equipment that will cut down on diesel consumption.

In addition to the SPA's efforts, DHEC is in the early stages of a "saturation study" of air emissions, according to department spokesman Adam Myrick. That means the state will set up air-quality monitors at sites around the Port of Charleston in the coming months.