Port draws fire from Georgetown neighbors over rigs, air pollution

Cathy Hendrickson slips out of her Georgetown home with her dog Joey on a midnight mission: counting the number of tractor-trailer trucks that work the Port of Seattle docks by day and wind up parked along her neighborhood's streets at night.

Her recent tally: 84 rigs jammed the streets in a four-block area.

Hendrickson and her neighbors have complained to the Port, saying the freight-hauling trucks are a noisy, smelly nuisance that add to the neighborhood's pollution and parking problems.

"I have just as much right to clean air as anyone," she said.

Aside from being unsightly, the trucks snap tree limbs, crush curbs and leave behind greasy rags, empty Prestone jugs and puddles of oil on the streets and in the bushes.

Neighbors are needling the Port to meet its goal of being among the "cleanest, greenest and most energy-efficient ports" in the world. They've also joined a national clean-ports movement that has come to Seattle after becoming a political force in California.

"It's a big deal for our entire industry," said Dan Gatchet, president of West Coast Trucking in Seattle. "It's a huge case in Los Angeles, and it's just reaching Seattle."

Almost everyone agrees pollution from diesel trucks driving and idling on Georgetown streets is a serious issue. It's not uncommon for truckers to work on their rigs, letting engines idle for more than an hour, Hendrickson said.

A Seattle Times analysis of federal air-quality data, published Feb. 23, 2006, found that neighborhoods near the Port of Seattle and Port of Tacoma have some of the unhealthiest air in the state because of diesel pollution. Although trucks produce far less diesel soot than ships, they spew particulates linked to cancer and asthma.

"There is a legitimate concern," said Ngozi Oleru, head of Seattle-King County's Environmental Health program. "We're not able to say the trucks relate directly to higher rates of asthma. However, we can say in general bad air quality is related to asthma and respiratory problems, and emissions from trucks do contribute to bad air quality."

Fixing the parking conflict may be easy, says Gatchet of West Coast Trucking. But cutting truck pollution is more difficult because of questions about who should pay for cleaner trucks.

At issue is a fleet of 1,500 to 1,800 trucks that regularly haul freight from ships to warehouses and rail yards. Some trucks make up to seven daily runs. The rigs are owned by independent operators and tend to be older vehicles, which pollute more than newer models.

The truckers park on Georgetown streets because it's cheaper to leave their trucks near the Port than drive them home. And driving their rigs home would only add to pollution, said Endeshaw Gebresenbet, an Ethiopian immigrant who lives in Edmonds and parked near Hendrickson's house, along with three other drivers earlier this week.

Gebresenbet said it's up to those with more money than the drivers, such as the government and shippers, to solve the problems. No-interest loans might help drivers buy cleaner trucks, he said. Still, he noted, the costs of cleaner trucks would likely be passed on to consumers.

"Maybe the best solution is to shut down the Port of Seattle and move the freight to Tacoma or Everett," he said.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set emission standards for new trucks, starting in 2007, that will significantly reduce diesel soot, said Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

Out with the old?

But that still leaves the question of what to do about 1,500 older trucks that serve the Port.

While the Port has no control over city streets, Port officials sent out a memo last week urging truckers not to park overnight in Georgetown. The Port might also make some of its vacant property available for truck parking, said Port Commissioners John Creighton and Alec Fisken.

The national Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports points to Los Angeles and Long Beach, where ports are considering using federal and state grants, plus fees charged to so-called dirty trucks, to prompt truck owners to replace older models with new ones. The plan also relies on charging shippers a fee for every cargo container coming through the Port.

The coalition, led by the Teamsters and other unions and environmental groups, also wants trucking companies to hire the drivers they now use as contractors. That would put the onus for switching to cleaner trucks on companies, not individual drivers. It also would make it easier for the Teamsters to organize drivers.

"We want to make sure the costs are not borne by relatively poor, independent drivers. We think that's best done by making them employees, which would make trucking companies take responsibility for their entire fleet," said Heather Weiner, the coalition's Seattle spokeswoman.

Shipping and trucking companies oppose the coalition's proposals.

The Pacific Merchant Shipping Association, which represents shippers at the Port, contends that container fees would likely be diverted to politicians' pet projects.

Gatchet of West Coast Trucking argues that clean-air issues should be separated from the Teamsters' organizing drive. He also questioned the logic of spending to modernize trucks that will be replaced — he believes in roughly 10 years — by cleaner ones mandated by the EPA. "That's the question — can we wait 10 years?"

Meeting planned

Port officials say they're still studying solutions. But they don't want to make rules, or add costs, that might put Seattle at a competitive disadvantage with ports that don't have clean-truck policies.

Meanwhile, Port of Seattle officials are working on a voluntary clean-air strategy with the ports of Tacoma and Vancouver, B.C., that they hope to have in place by the end of the year. They plan to meet with Georgetown residents and others Oct. 10 to discuss that proposal.

Allowing trucks to park on Port property would be a good start to addressing some community concerns, Gebresenbet said. But it wouldn't cut pollution. And while new trucks would, Gebresenbet and other drivers said they can't afford models that sell for well over $100,000.

"I understand the drivers are trying to make a decent living," added Hendrickson, a legal secretary. "I just want the Port to do more. I know they can."

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com