EPA Works with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to Enforce the Clean Air Act

WASHINGTON ?The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are collaborating to ensure that all imported vehicles and engines comply with the Clean Air Act requirements. In the past year, more than $6.5 million worth of vehicles including motorcycles, dirt bikes, tractors, and generators were imported into the U.S. and found to be in violation of the Clean Air Act, according to EPA records. “Importing vehicles and engines without proper pollution controls is bad for human health and the environment, and unfair to those companies that play by the rules," said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. "Americans deserve products with emission controls that comply with our nation’s environmental laws." “CBP's partnerships with other government agencies and private industry are a critical link in the protection of the American public, the economy, and the environment,?said Don Yando, executive director for Commercial Targeting and Enforcement in CBP’s Office of International Trade. “These partnerships enhance CBP's ability to more effectively focus on those goods that pose the greatest threat.? CBP officers identify shipments, with particular focus on companies that have previously violated the Clean Air Act, and put them on hold for inspection. EPA investigators, working closely with a special team of CBP officers, inspect the vehicles and engines. Vehicles and engines found to be uncertified are seized by CBP. In a recent seizure, EPA and CBP at the Port of Savannah confiscated illegal off-road motorcycles worth more than $125,000. The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires most new vehicles and engines imported into the U.S. to have an emissions label and a corresponding EPA certificate of conformity stating that the vehicle or engine meets federal emissions requirements. Ensuring compliance with the CAA is important because it protects US citizens from potentially harmful air emissions. Vehicles and engines emit carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides that contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone, or smog. Exposure to even low levels of ozone can cause respiratory problems, and repeated exposure can aggravate pre-existing respiratory diseases. CBP, as the primary federal agency responsible for monitoring importations to the U.S., cooperates with over 40 federal agencies to play a critical role in assisting with the enforcement of U.S. law. EPA’s mission is to protect human health and the environment. EPA works with other federal agencies to enforce environmental laws.

Drugs Cross Border By Truck, Free Trade And Chance

At the core of the grisly Mexican cartel war, traffickers are fighting over border crossings, the gateways to the world's richest illegal drug market. In Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the Gulf Cartel is battling the Zetas for control of the plaza, whose prize is the World Trade Bridge, the biggest commercial port on the southwest border.
Each day, 4,800 trucks cross the bridge. That's one truck every 15 seconds. From there, via Interstate 35, it's a straight shot to America's drug-loving heartland.
"By far, not only is it the busiest in the amount of trucks, but it is also the busiest in the narcotics that are seized here each year," says Gene Garza, the longtime Laredo port director for Customs and Border Protection. "We get a lot of tile shipments where we find drugs. We get a lot of furniture with marijuana loads
out of [the central-western Mexican state of] Jalisco."

Cleanup crews busy at Port of Long Beach after vessel's oil spill

Cleanup crews were working at the Port of Long Beach on Monday after a vessel’s tanks overflowed during fueling and spilled oil into the water, Coast Guard officials said. The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the spill shortly after 12 a.m., sending a pollution investigator to the scene, said Petty Officer Matt Schofield, a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard. A cleanup company placed a protective boom around the vessel and spill. The Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter to fly over and assess the spread of the oil, said Schofield, who added that the amount of oil spilled was unknown.

Harbor Commissioners To Meet On Clean Air Plan Update

The Los Angeles and Long Beach boards of Harbor Commissioners will meet on Nov. 22 to consider the 2010 San Pedro Bay Ports Clean Air Action Plan Update. The original CAAP was adopted in 2006, which the ports designed as a "living document" to be periodically reviewed. The updated CAAP "sets even more aggressive goals and strategies for reducing air pollution and health risks from the goods transportation industry," according to a statement issued by the port. The two harbor commissions last met jointly on Oct. 6 to consider the CAAP Update. At that meeting the boards voted to allow for additional public review. The meeting is scheduled for 2:00pm at Banning’s Landing Community Center, 100 E. Water St., in Wilmington 90744. It will be webcast live at polb.com/webcast. The update, a fact sheet and "Response to Comments" documents can be obtained at cleanairactionplan.org. The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach are the two busiest U.S. seaports, moving $300 billion in trade each year and supporting more than 500,000 jobs in Southern California.

Long Beach Voters Pass Measure D, Long-Term Impact on Port Remains Uncertain

Long Beach voters on Tuesday passed Measure D, a local initiative to amend the City Charter to make it easier for the Council to gain access to port revenues. The vote - 56 percent in favor, 44 percent against - followed a flurry of last-minute campaigning, including mailers from the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association urging a no-vote on the measure and email blasts by Long Beach City Auditor Laura Doud and Councilman Gary DeLong urging voters to say yes. The PMSA said the measure would politicize the port, take money needed for port infrastructure, and make it harder for the Port of Long Beach to compete against other ports. Doud and DeLong said the measure merely created a more transparent, fair and reliable funding method to keep the city's coastal areas clean and safe. The passage of Measure D marks a bitter defeat for the trade and transportation community, which had closed ranks against the initiative and campaigned to see it defeated. The Long Beach Chamber of Commerce went on record against the measure. The Harbor Association of Industry and Commerce, the Propeller Club, the L.A. Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, the PMSA, Future Ports, and the California Marine & Intermodal Transportation System Advisory Council put out a joint press release declaring their opposition to the measure. Former Mayor Eunice Sato penned an OpEd piece calling for rejection of the measure. And PMSA President John McLaurin lambasted the measure in an OpEd Piece in the JOC headlined: Long Beach Dash for Cash. An analysis of the measure by the State Lands Commission raised serious doubts about the city's role as state trustees. That analysis infuriated Mayor Bob Foster and City Attorney Bob Shannon, who blasted it as unprofessional and inaccurate. But PMSA Vice President Michele Grubbs urged the State Lands Commission to do an independent audit of how the city spent its Tidelands Operations money - a suggestion that further infuriated Foster and Shannon. The short-term consequences of the vote are fairly clear. The insulation of the port operation from the politics of City Hall has been permanently breached. The bond rating agencies whose reports will be used to determine how expensive it is for the port to borrow money will be taking a close look at the change in circumstance. And port revenues are now up for grabs anytime the city has a new pet project for its Tidelands zone. The long-term consequences are not nearly so clear. The trade and transportation community is already fed up with the regulatory uncertainty and high costs of bringing cargo through California. Each new regulation and fee brings with it administrative costs to comply and the risk of inadvertent non-compliance. Despite the geographic advantages offered by West Coast ports and the demographic advantages of California, if there is a choice, shippers may decide to go elsewhere. The cargo headed for the local market will probably always come through the Southern California ports, but the discretionary cargo - especially the less expensive cargo - may look for other routes. By itself, Measure D is probably not enough to result in diversion of cargo to other ports, but it is one more factor for a shipper to consider when he's choosing what port to ship through. One could reasonably expect in the future to see the City Council inserting itself more and more into port business. Although the port is a city department, it is also a state trust, beholden to the residents of the entire state and overseen by the State Lands Commission. The financial health of the port and its ability to compete are essential to jobs and businesses across California and beyond, from warehouse and distribution center workers in the Inland Empire, who package and prepare goods to be sent across the nation, to growers in the Central Valley, who depend on the ports to connect to the global market. Unlike ports in the Pacific Northwest, which are subsidized by taxpayers, the Southern California ports subsidize the cities in which they are located - through transfers of revenue to the City Council to be spent on tideland operations (beaches, marinas, seawalls) or through port payments for police and fire services in addition to what would normally be covered by the taxes paid by port tenants. As long as port support for local projects and events were kept at reasonable levels, the ports' trusts have been given wide latitude in determining what constitutes proper expenditures of port funds. But, it's during times like these, when cities are struggling to make up lost revenues, that the state begins taking a closer look at exactly how the money is being spent. As the City Council becomes more aggressive in its demands for port revenues, it begins to invite attention from the state. One result is that the State Lands Commission starts taking a harder line to protect the port and the people of California from future raids by the City Council. This was seen in the recent analysis of the measure. Another possibility is that as the city uses the port as a piggy bank, it encourages legislators of the cash-strapped state to think about establishing a state-wide port authority that would oversee California's ports - currently operated by cities under state trusts - and allow the state to have access to those revenues. Following last week's vote, the PMSA issued a statement, expressing disappointment at the outcome and calling it a "deceptive measure that was rushed on to the ballot literally in the dark of night in order the pass." Councilman DeLong was quoted in LB Report.com following the election, saying the vote showed that while city residents valued the contributions by the port to the local economy, they are also willing to invest in improving the beaches and coastal area. The second thing it showed, he told the LB Report, was don't mess with the city auditor.

Texas-Mexico International Bridges And Border Crossings

According to the Texas Department of Transportation, 13 out of the total 27 border crossings between Texas and Mexico allow commercial traffic, including the World Trade Bridge and the Bridge of the Americas. Both bridges also have dedicated "Free and Secure Trade (FAST) lanes" for trucks carrying commercial products pre-certified by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program.

The Numbers Game

Truck traffic through Laredo has tripled since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) came into force 16 years ago. If customs inspectors examined every truck, it would cripple free trade. Instead, one out of every five trucks is unloaded and inspected. So drug traffickers play the numbers game. "They're probably thinking ... 'My truck is not gonna get examined. We're gonna go through Laredo to see if we can get through,'" Garza says. This fiscal year, more than 4.7 million commercial trucks crossed into the U.S. from Mexico. According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents seized 96 tons of marijuana from trucks at southwest ports of entry in 2010, more than twice as much as in 2006. Officials say tougher enforcement in the lonesome stretches between border towns is funneling more contraband through these busy border crossings.