Oct. 4, 2002
The Southland’s air quality agency today improved the flexibility and
accountability of an innovative program that reduces air pollution from tug
boats and other vessels in the ports.
"Marine engines are largely unregulated and as a result they are a
significant source of air pollution," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer
of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
"These improvements will allow us to clean up more tug and fishing boats in
the harbor, which means cleaner air for Southland residents."
AQMD’s Governing Board adopted an amendment today to the agency’s
Rule 1631 – Pilot Credit
Generation for Marine Vessels – to allow emission credits to be generated when a
marine engine is rebuilt to produce lower emissions. Previously under this rule,
credits could be generated only if an engine was completely replaced.
Remanufacturing an engine by retaining only the engine block and replacing all
existing parts with new ones costs thousands of dollars less than replacing it,
and thus makes the conversion affordable to more boat owners. Remanufactured
engines must be certified to meet a low emissions standard and must be tested
during the period they generate credits to ensure that their emissions stay at
or below the standard.
Credits generated for nitrogen oxide emission reductions can be sold to and
used by facilities in RECLAIM, the agency’s cap-and-trade emissions reduction
program for large industrial sources. A portion of the nitrogen oxide credits
and all other pollutant reductions are taken off the market to benefit the
environment.
So far, about 40 tug boats and other marine vessels have been repowered or
are scheduled to be in the next year under Rule 1631. An additional 90 some
vessels have been repowered under other programs. This will reduce many tons of
smog-forming nitrogen oxides and fine particulate – not just for the three to
five years they generate credits, but for the life of the engines, which can be
up to 40 years.
Rule 1631 also was amended to allow boats in the program to travel out of
AQMD waters up to twice a year for maintenance. Previously, they could not
travel out of district waters -- which extend 25 nautical miles out from the
coast -- at any time. This proved a hardship as there are not enough boat yards
in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to service the fleets of tug boats
and other vessels;
In a related action, the Board approved up to $275,000 to install Global
Positioning System (GPS) units in as many as 113 marine vessels that have
received lower-emission engines to improve program enforcement. The initiative
will install GPS instruments in all vessels repowered with AQMD and state funds
(some boats already have the equipment since Rule 1631 requires GPS for any
vessel generating credits). GPS devices on the boats will provide precise
latitude and longitude locations every 30 minutes and log the data to an
on-board computer. Most of the marine vessel programs require the boats to be in
AQMD’s waters 75 percent or 100 percent of the time, depending on the funding
source, to ensure that emission reductions directly benefit residents in AQMD’s
area.
In other action today, the Board:
- Set for public hearing on Nov. 1 a proposed amendment to Rule 1421 –
Control of Perchloroethylene from Dry Cleaning Operations. The measure, a
major air toxics reduction initiative, would gradually phase out the use of
cancer-causing "perc" in the region’s 2,200 dry cleaners in favor of more
environmentally friendly technologies;
- Set public hearings for Nov. 1 to: amend Regulation XIII – New Source
Review to provide facilities with additional options to offset emissions
increases; amend Rule 1610 – Old Vehicle Scrapping to make it consistent with
the California Air Resources Board’s requirements; and amend Rule 1173 –
Control of Volatile Organic Compound Leaks and Releases from Components at
Petroleum Facilities and Chemical Plants to further reduce emissions from
them.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major portions
of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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