PORT OF LOS ANGELES TO HOST SECOND
ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMIT OF 2015
Water Quality Will Be Focus of 10 a.m. Meeting on Thursday, May 28
SAN PEDRO, Calif. — May 21, 2015 — The Port of Los Angeles will host its second Environmental Summit of the year on Thursday, May 28 at its headquarters in San Pedro. The summit will bring together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss environmental initiatives and priorities that will help ensure balanced and sustainable Port growth and operational efficiency in the future.
“There was excellent dialogue and feedback from our January Environmental Summit,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “On Thursday, in addition to air quality, we’ll also discuss water quality. We’ve made tremendous progress in this area and we have initiatives in place to keep us on track into the future.”
The Environmental Summit will be held in the Board Hearing Room of the Port of Los Angeles Administration Building located at 425 S. Palos Verdes Street in San Pedro. The meeting is open to the public and will be webcast live at portoflosangeles.org.
Water and sediment quality in San Pedro Bay has improved greatly over the last 40 years through increased monitoring, regulation by state and federal agencies, pollution source control, and dredging that has removed accumulated contaminants in harbor sediment.
The San Pedro Bay port complex faces ongoing challenges from contaminants that remain in port sediments, flow into the harbor from port land, and flow from upstream sources in the watershed, well beyond the ports’ boundaries. The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach have developed a coordinated Water Resources Action Plan (WRAP) and are working with stakeholders to develop measures that will further minimize landside and waterside sources of pollutants in the San Pedro Bay.
The meeting will offer the opportunity for an open discussion after the presentations. Invited stakeholders include local community leaders, including the neighborhood councils, representatives from the Port of Long Beach, key regulatory agencies, private industry, and representatives from environmental organizations that are active at the two ports.
The Port of Los Angeles is America’s premier port and has a strong commitment to developing innovative strategic and sustainable operations that benefit Southern California’s economy and quality of life. As North America’s leading seaport in terms by container volume and cargo value, the Port of Los Angeles facilitated $290 billion in trade during 2014. Port operations and commerce facilitate more than 148,000 jobs (about one in 12) in the City of Los Angeles and 531,000 jobs (or one in 16) in the five-county Southern California region. The San Pedro Bay Ports support more than 1 million California jobs and 3.1 million nationwide.