Smog Alert

The Growing Threat from 'Floating Smokestacks'

Posted: 15-Jun-2004; Updated: 10-Feb-2006

Gazing out at New York Harbor on a sunny day, most people enjoy the panorama of boats large and small -- huge tankers and container ships intermingled with ferries, tugs and barges. But if viewers look closely at this quaint picture, they will likely notice black fumes and soot billowing from these boats and ships.

The reality is that commercial marine vessels are big polluters. Nationally, commercial shipping is responsible for about 1 million tons of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen (NOx) each year -- or as much as millions of cars. (View table to see how much vessels pollute in some major U.S. ports.) By comparison, this amount of pollution is equivalent to that controlled under the EPA program adopted several years ago to cut NOx from power plants in 19 eastern states.

And each year commercial marine vessels release some 40,000 tons of microscopic particles (fine soot) and 160,000 tons of sulfur dioxide across the United States. These contaminants contribute to excessive smog and particulate pollution in communities nationwide. Ozone (a main ingredient of smog) and fine soot produce a ripple of public health and environmental harm each year, including many thousands of premature deaths, hospitalizations and emergency room visits for children due to asthma attacks.

Commercial marine vessels are generally powered by the same diesel engine technology that powers diesel freight trucks, diesel buses and diesel equipment used in construction, agricultural, mining and industrial applications. Yet ships have escaped the rigorous pollution controls that have been adopted for land-based diesel engines. Hardest hit by the exhaust from these floating smokestacks are the numerous communities near the nation's ports, coastal waterways and inland waters. With shipping traffic expected to double over the next ten years, our air will only get dirtier unless steps are taken now to clean up the pollution from commercial ships.

Environmental Defense has just released a new report Smog Alert [PDF] that documents the extent of the problem. Many smog-plagued communities facing compliance with strict ozone smog health standards face choppy waters ahead unless the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) brings these ships and their fuel in line with the same rigorous pollution control standards that apply to other parts of the transportation sector.

How Far Will New EPA Regulations Go?

The good news is that EPA recently announced a new initiative to examine options for cleaning up the pollution from commercial ships (including barges, ferries, tugs and other large boats but excluding large ocean-going commercial liners) and is considering modeling the regulations on those for highway trucks and buses and nonroad diesel-powered equipment like tractors and bulldozers.

How tight EPA's regulations will be is still an open question: whether diesel ships will be held to the same rigorous emission standards as land-based diesel engines and whether pollution controls for these engines become an integral part of communities' efforts to achieve clean and healthful air.

The bottom line is that more than half our country's population is still breathing dirty air, many in urban centers, and these areas will have to find ways to clean up all major sources of smog-forming pollution to comply with federal health-based standards. On April 15, 2004, EPA announced its designations of ozone "nonattainment" areas -- 474 counties in 31 states that do not comply with EPA's protective health-based ozone air-quality standards. (Read more about nonattainment areas, healthy air and asthma.) Locales failing to meet the federal health-based ozone standard included large metropolitan areas like New York, Los Angeles and Houston -- and all have major ports.

GRAPHIC: Port of Pittsburgh

But commercial shipping extends well beyond seaside ports -- wherever there are navigable waters, there are ships delivering pollution, from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. For example, one of the largest port complexes in the world stretches 254 miles from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to the Gulf of Mexico. Ships there emit as much NOx as half a million onroad vehicles into areas that are struggling to meet EPA's protective health-based ozone standard. Cutting emissions from marine vessels -- a significant source of ozone -- makes sense and is indeed imperative for out-of compliance communities located near a waterway.

Environmental Defense Recommendations

Federal, state and local governments must work together to cut the suite of airborne -- contaminants from high-polluting marine diesel engines, both new and existing. Our report recommends the following:

EPA must set rigorous national particulate and NOx emission standards for new marine engines to aid state and local governments in restoring healthful air. EPA's recent decision to require low sulfur fuel for small and medium-sized commercial ships will lower harmful pollution in its own right and enable the advanced technology necessary to cut particulate and NOx emissions.
The United States government must undertake a renewed effort - through federal standards and international agreements - to curtail the pollution from large oceangoing ships. This includes prompt action by the Senate to ratify amendments to the international convention to control pollution from ships, which the President transmitted to the Senate for its advice and consent on May 15, 2003.
Since diesel-powered engines can operate for decades, EPA and local governments should clean up the harmful pollution from existing diesel marine engines, relying on near-term pollution abatement strategies such as retrofit and repower programs. This will lower pollution from existing ships without waiting for newer cleaner ships to penetrate the market.
Regulatory agencies, port authorities and commercial shipping firms should provide cleaner land-based power for ships at dock to curb hotelling pollution (hotelling pollution is produced when ships idle in port while loading, unloading and waiting for cargo).
Regulatory agencies and port authorities should also establish operational requirements, including fuel-switching and speed reduction in and near ports, as low-cost means to reduce nearshore pollution levels.
Governments at all levels should develop accurate and up-to-date vessel pollution inventories to better assess and control threats from commercial marine pollution.

The Report

Click on the links below to download or view the complete report in pdf file format (Adobe Reader required).