Two environmental groups on Wednesday threatened to sue the Port of Long Beach near downtown Los Angeles if it did not reduce diesel soot and smog.

The ultimatum from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Coalition for a Safe Environment (CSE) gave the port 90 days to take action or face a federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit would be brought under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a law that allows a federal court to order a polluter to stop causing harm to the public and environment if imminent endangerment can be shown.

The ultimatum was delivered in a letter to Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Mario Cordero and port Executive Director Richard Steinke.

The letter urged port authorities to immediately require that vessels switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel, a move that could result in higher fuel costs the industry has warned would be passed on to consumers of imported goods.

It also called on the port to limit expansion projects until it could prove to the satisfaction of a federal judge that such activities would not "at any time increase the level of hazardous diesel particulates emanating from the port."

"We are tired of listening to port authorities saying all the right things but doing little," said David Pettit, a senior attorney with the NRDC. "It's time for a new approach."

Port authorities declined to comment pending their attorneys' review of the letter. But Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., expressed dismay over the legal tactic, which he said "could run afoul of regulations regarding international trade."

The environmental groups countered that the port can control dangerous emissions when ships are in port and can regulate the trucks, trains and warehouses that are part of the sprawling 105- billion-dollar operation, which accounts for 230,000 jobs regionwide.

Studies estimate that diesel exhaust from freight transport contributes to 2,400 premature deaths statewide each year, with 50 percent of those deaths occurring in the South Coast Air Basin.

The legal challenge comes a year after the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach passed a highly touted Clean Air Action Plan to slash port-generated pollution 45 percent by 2012.

(Shanghai Daily February 7, 2008)