Friends of Rocky Prairie

Air Quality

Thurston County Code [TCC] 17.20.100 would require the Port of Tacoma to obtain pre-construction approval permits from Olympia Clean Air Agency. The US Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Ecology also have jurisdiction of the air quality on site. If the Logistics Center were developed, there would be a dramatic increase in diesel particulate pollution in the area due to increased truck and train emissions.

Recent research findings reveal the worst culprit is ultra-fine diesel particulate matter, which is so fine it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream from the lungs. These types of emissions are found in high concentrations around established Port cargo facilities, and as a result, have created an alarming increase in health problems, especially asthma and cancer.

The effects are not limited to the immediate vicinity of the facility. Please follow the link to The Pacific Institute to view a well-known report titled Paying With Our Health, The Real Cost of Freight Transport in California to view these disturbing statistics.  Also, look at the Website from Trade, Health & Environment Impact Project, which has been providing research findings to inform the public on matters of Trade, Health and the Environment.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency website concerning locomotives, EPA writes: “Locomotive engines are significant contributors of air pollution in many of our nation’s cities and ports. Although the engines being produced today must meet relatively modest emission requirements set in 1997, they continue to emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, both of which contribute to serious public health concerns.”

Read about the EPA clean-air non-road diesel regulations enacted in 2004 pertaining to locomotives and retrofit requirements,

For current regulation background and statistics for the reduction of pollution projected when the new diesel standards are applied and other relevant EPA diesel statistics involving this decision, go to this link: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/regs/nonroad/420f07015.htm

The EPA, under court order to update ozone standards for the first time in a decade, proposed tightening standards to 17 percent in the response to the mounting evidence of health risks due to smog. If these standards were enacted to the new levels of 75/parts per billion today, the following Washington counties would be out of compliance: THURSTON, PIERCE, Island, King, Kitsap, Mason, Snohomish and Spokane. The proposal is in a 90-day comment period, and new regulations could be enacted as early as April of ‘08.

• Three railway companies would use tracks in and around the property, on a round-the-clock basis: BNSF, Union Pacific and Tacoma Rail, Mountain Division. Thousands of trucks would clog the roads; many container trucks are independently owned making it difficult to enforce safety standards. (See the Traffic page.)

• Communities that live in large port districts have increased serious heath risks.

• As our regional community considers all aspects of the proposed South Sound Logistics Center, it is our responsibility to point out the hazards of truck and train pollution and the many exceptions to EPA standards that are granted to older fleets, including trains.