Four stations that measure air quality in and around the Port of Los Angeles show that concentrations of elemental carbon in the port area air fell in 2010 for the fourth straight year, according to a press release from the port.

Elemental carbon is used as an indicator of diesel particulate matter, or DPM, which is the soot produced by the combustion of diesel fuel.

At the end of 2010, elemental carbon was down by 50 percent in Wilmington compared to 2006. A similar pattern occurred at the San Pedro monitoring station. These drops in elemental carbon, to the lowest levels since the port began monitoring in 2005, happened even as cargo volumes at the port have rebounded—in 2010 the port handled 16 percent more cargo than in 2009, but elemental carbon at both the Wilmington monitoring and San Pedro stations were 10 percent lower than in 2009.

“I’m very pleased to be able to report that we are living up to our Clean Air Action Plan commitment—we pledged to cut port-related emissions by 45 percent, and these results show that for diesel exhaust we did more,” said Port Executive Director Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D.

Since 2005, the Port has operated four air quality measurement stations: one in San Pedro, another in Wilmington, and two inside the port complex, including one in the middle of port operations.  The stations are located so as to measure air quality both in the port complex and in the communities downwind of the port, where air quality is affected by emissions from the ships, trucks, terminal equipment, harbor vessels, and train locomotives that move cargo through the nation’s largest container port.

Officials also credited the port’s Clean Truck Program for helping to improve air quality. Since the program was launched on October 1, 2008, the port has distributed more than $70 million to spur the purchase of more than 2,700 cleaner, newer trucks. There are currently more than 10,000 trucks serving the San Pedro Bay port complex that meet or exceed the U.S. EPA 2007 heavy-duty truck emissions standards.