Senate reviews community health impact of CA ports
Florez convenes air quality hearing to consider new technologies to lessen port pollution

SAN PEDRO – Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez (D-Shafter) will convene a hearing of port officials, air quality regulators and community advocates Thursday morning at the Port of Los Angeles to consider the impact of ports on the health of surrounding communities, the authority of regulatory agencies to intervene and the potential of new technologies to mitigate harm caused by port pollution.

While Southern California’s ports are unquestionably critical to the economy of California and goods movement for the nation, Florez believes it is incumbent on the state’s leaders to ensure those profits do not come at the expense of the health of surrounding communities.

To that end, Florez will hold a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Air Quality to investigate what authority exists to regulate air quality at the ports, whether or not that authority is sufficient, what steps ports have already taken to improve air quality and what plans they have for future efforts.

The committee will also hear from community groups representing residents of port neighborhoods to put a human face on the experience of living with port pollution, as well as companies with technologies that offer solutions leading to cleaner air in the long term. 

Thursday’s hearing will be held at 10 a.m. at the Port of Los Angeles Headquarters – Administration Building, located at 455 South Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro.

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WHO: Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter; Chair, Senate Select Committee on Air Quality Representatives of the Port of Los Angeles, Port of Long Beach, CA Air Resources Board, South Coast Air Quality District, American Lung Association, Sierra Club, Eastyard Communities for Environmental Justice, Coalition for a Safe Environment, Advanced Cleanup Technologies and American MagLev Technology Inc.

WHAT: Senate Select Committee on Air Quality Hearing – “Evaluating the Air Quality Impact of California’s Ports: What are Ports Doing to Protect the Health of the Surrounding Communities?”

WHEN: Thursday, November 12, 2009
          10:00 a.m.

WHERE: Port of Los Angeles Headquarters, Administration Building
            425 South Palos Verdes Street; San Pedro, CA  90731