Chasing Clean Air

Make Your Voice Heard in Los Angeles for Cleaner Air on Aug. 2nd & 5th

Ports of Long Beach & Los Angeles to Hold Hearings on Zero Emissions Container Movement Systems

At two upcoming meetings on Monday, August 2nd and Thursday, August 5th, 2010, the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will be hearing reports and potentially approving actions regarding proposals for Zero Emission Container Mover System (ZECMS). Both ports have set goals to reduce emissions from port operations. Last year the ports issued a solicitation for concepts regarding ZECMS between the ports and near-dock rail yards.

Over 40 % of the goods that go to the rest of the country go through the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Diesel-fueled cargo handling equipment at ports and intermodal rail yards is used to transfer goods. Equipment at the ports includes yard trucks (hostlers), cranes, top handlers, side handlers, forklifts, and loaders, just to name a few.

Reduction of diesel particulate matter (PM) and oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions from such equipment is needed for public health protection.

Over 2,000 peer-reviewed studies since 1997 have linked increased diesel soot particle pollution to strokes, heart disease, respiratory ailments, and premature death. Studies have also shown a correlation between living along a surface transportation corridor and significant cancer risk.

Public Input
These hearings are open to the public and you are welcome to attend should you want to voice your opinion.

AGENDA LINK: BHC Agenda 8/2/10

Hearing dates and addresses:
Monday, August 2, 2010, at 1:00 p.m.
Board Of Harbor Commissioners
Harbor Department Administration Building
925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, California

Thursday, August 5, 2010, at 8:30 a.m.
Port of Los Angeles
Harbor Commission Administration Building
425 South Palos Verdes Street

San Pedro, California, USA 90731

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Stinson Beach, Marin County

Excitedly we headed for the giant Redwood Trees at Muir Woods, for the occasion of my dad's 81st birthday!

It's one of the few places where these gentle giants grow.

Old growth groves of Redwoods are only found in the fog-belt between Monterey, California and the Oregon Coast.

Indeed, they are so incredibly awesome that we couldn't find one parking space.

For over a mile.

Up and down a steep incline we drove, a line of cars hugging the roadside.

Tofino & The Pacific Sands Beach Resort on Vancouver Island

This is a reprint of article about Tofino & The Pacific Sands Beach Resort on Vancouver Island.

My legs kicked up on the wooden table, facing the Pacific Ocean.

I was in the Pacific Sands Resort suite looking beyond  sliding glass doors to the Pacific ocean and surfers, which Tofino is known for.

It's also home to the magnificent Pacific Rim National Park, a temperate rain forest with towering cedars and hemlocks--many 500-1000 years old.

Located on the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island, The Pacific Sand's Resort at Cox Bay is a reprieve from civilization without leaving the luxuries of civilization behind.

My suite was decorated with subtle forest greens and tan. Very calming. There was a full-kitchen, dining area, fireplace, comfortable bed, rain slickers (just in case, but once again I brought the sun) TV, and excellent internet connection, which was complimentary.

I watched surfers fight the wind, ride massive waves, strengthening their thighs on a natural high before I went for a few easy hikes in the rain forest.

I personally chose the Pacific Sands Beach Resort because when given a choice I go with the company that strives to save natural resources.

The Pettinger family founded the resort in 1973 and prioritized saving natural resources. Recycling, buying furniture and other amenities from local sources, and providing geothermal renewable energy to heat and cool their 40 acre resort located on the crescent-shaped Cox Bay, a quiet place where people spend hours each day, are some initiatives they took.

Sunset Bridge Demolition Tonight

The Sunset Bridge Demolition fever is heating up over the 405!

Only two hours to go before yellow and orange clad workmen with hard-hats start chipping away at the bridge striding over the world's busiest freeway.

Every major news station van was lined up in a make-shift parking lot next to massive machines, sitting idle. For now. But according to the jean-wearing hard-hat Kiewit manager, whose name I didn't note for I was supposedly only driving through--at 1 a.m. the bewitching hour will explode (my word) when the 405 freeway closes and workmen chip (Kiewit manager's word) away at the south side of the bridge.

When the 405 closes, Sepulveda will remain open.

For six consecutive nights. 1 a.m. to 6 a.m.

"What about dust? What about air pollution?" I asked.

The Kiewit manager, who seemed like a calm orchestra conductor if you asked me, gestured with one hand as if holding a hose above a garden.

"We'll hose the dust down." His fingers did a staccato movement in the air. "As we chip away at the bridge."

The mechanical orchestra was getting ready to play, each instrument large, yellow, and dusty.

Yet the excitement and anticipation in the air was something to behold. 

Drum roll, please.

I think I'll take a picture. 

To learn more about the Sunset Bridge Demolition and 405 widening project, check out Metro here.

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Sunset Bridge Is Falling Down... Tonight!

"London Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling..." I was in kindergarten playing a game about a bridge going down not realizing a few decades later I'd live around the corner from the real life Sunset Bridge going down tonight.

While the contractors with whom I spoke told me they'd take every precaution to minimize dust, I'm headed to a friend's pad at the beach.

Yes, I'm lucky.

I know.

For the six consecutive nights that the first half of the bridge will be demolished from 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. I will sleep elsewhere. I was just packing my trunk with bathing suit, gym stuff, my own pillow, when I saw the KCAL 9 news crew interviewing locals about their reaction to the Sunset Bridge going down tonight. Timing. Good. Yes, except no make-up.

I decided to post my climate change video above because I believe my opening scenes include traffic I shot from Sunset Bridge. To give you an idea of area that will get a face-lift, I mean, area where we need more lanes. Couldn't you tell? Me neither. Apparently, the bridge needs to be wider (and more earthquake proof) as well as the 405 freeway.

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Floating down Fraser River

I'm busy planning next trip so today I'll reprint great memories from floating down the Fraser River, the longest river in British Columbia, Canada.

Let me tell you about a whirlwind 24 hours that included floating down the Fraser River in enough bubble wrap that you'd think I wouldn't need a boat to float, but then you haven't met Doug Mooring of Cariboo Rivers Fishing and Wilderness Adventures, who insisted I don the red.

Who cares that I forgot red lipstick; it's the law.

And you learn quickly around these woods, when you're an American in Canada, Canadians take laws and Americans seriously.