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Long
Beach, Second
Busiest Port in US Shows Its Awe
Long Beach--We recently got an exciting look inside the
second busiest U.S. seaport--the Port of
Long Beach, which sprawls over 35 miles of
waterfront and is visited by cargo ships as
long as three football fields.
The impressive one day tour, which was
shared by more than 10,000 people on Oct.
4th at Green Portfest 2009, was viewed by
rail, boat and foot. We learned that the
port's "On Dock Rail" program now has more
than 20% of the containerized cargo being
loaded on trains at five of the shipping
terminals. Officials said the more loaded on
trains, the less the pollution. They've
built over 100 miles of tracks for trains,
some more than one mile long. A fully loaded
train can carry 280 containers. The sulfur
diesel fuel of the trains reportedly reduces
pollution by 70% over other fuels.
Containers are constantly going both on and
off cargo ships. Huge cranes, some as high
as 30 story buildings, can pull 30
containers, weighing between 40,000-60,000
pounds, an hour off the ships, port
personnel said. The containers go on trains
or trucks. The colorful containers are red,
blue, green, brown, orange and white, with
company names on their sides like Hanjin,
Cosco, K Line, Polynesia, Hamburg, Wanhai
and Capital.
Each year, $140 billion worth of cargo
passes across the port's docks. Not only
imports--everything from cars and food--but
exports as well. We saw refrigerated
containers with Central California frozen
chicken and strawberries, getting ready for
a journey to Asia.
The Port says many of the gigantic ships are
using cleaner fuels and traveling at slower
speeds--helping cut down on the pollution. A
Green Port Policy, adopted in 2005, is
further working to protect the community
from harmful environmental impacts (i.e.,
truck containers pass through radiation
detectors before going out onto the
highways).
Security is ever present throughout the
complex on land, in the water and overhead
as law enforcement agencies are coordinating
their efforts to prevent crime.
Many Portfest guests got to view the area on
a special free Metrolink train as well as on
harbor tours. From the boats you could see
islands, designed by Disney, where oil
companies have reportedly pumped more than
900 million barrels of oil since 1965. You
also could see the manmade breakwater (9
miles long and 205 feet deep) that was
initially started in 1899! A bird sanctuary
for migratory fowl, sea lions and ships,
like Sea Launch (which helps launch
commercial satellites from platforms in the
ocean), were added bonuses to the
fascinating day.
(We thank the Port of Long Beach for
explaining their "green" efforts and giving
out studies like the USC Sea Grant report on
marine life in the bay. For more info, visit
their website at polb.com.)
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