Expansion of the Port of Charleston (SC)
Dirty air and transportation failure come with planned port expansion
Every day hundreds of diesel-powered trucks come and go from the Port of Charleston, the fourth busiest port on the East and Gulf Coasts. In addition to hundreds of tons of cargo, these trucks bring harmful pollutants to Charleston and add to an already congested I-26, the transportation lifeline of the city.
©Charlie Shoffner
The port expansion will bring 10,000 more vehicles a day to I-26 -- a recipe for transportation failure, dangerous levels of pollution, and poorer public health
These problems will only get worse under a proposed port expansion that will add 10,000 vehicles per day to I-26 - threatening the health of nearby residents and bringing I-26 to the brink of failure.
It doesn't have to be this way. Cleaner, more efficient, cheaper alternatives exist that would not risk the future of I-26 or the health of nearby residents. But the Army Corps of Engineers didn't explore them.
The port expansion includes a $600 million terminal at the former Navy Base and a $300 million highway to take terminal traffic to I-26, to be constructed by the State Ports Authority and S.C. Department of Transportation, respectively. SCDOT also plans widen the interstate segments most impacted by port traffic - for an additional $300 million of taxpayer money The agencies pretend that the widening is unrelated to the rest of the project even though data shows the increased traffic will overwhelm I-26.
In addition to transportation failure, the project will likely result in air quality failure. Diesel trucks and ships are responsible for fine particle pollution – tiny particles of metals and dust that lodge permanently in lungs – as well as other carcinogenic air toxics. These pollutants cause asthma, lung cancer and cardiac disease. In fact, studies have shown that the pollution from diesel emissions are responsible for higher cancer rates and hundreds of premature deaths in neighborhoods surrounding ports.
Even the Corps’ own environmental assessment predicts that the expansion will generate fine particle pollution 30 percent higher than the federal standard, and other air experts contend the increase will be even worse, with the result being that Charleston fails federal health standards for fine particle pollution, or soot. Charleston already received an “F” rating from the American Lung Association for its high levels of particle pollution.
In November, 2007 the Southern Environmental Law Center, representing the Coastal Conservation League, filed suit against the Corps for its failure to consider alternatives, such as using existing rail lines to transport cargo, that would reduce air quality and transportation impacts. The suit aims to overturn federal approval of a new container shipping terminal and four lane highway at the former Charleston Navy Base.
The suit contends that the Corps failed to reveal that traffic from the new terminal will cause I-26 to reach failing levels of service eastward of the interchange with I-526, and that it will cause the Charleston region to fail federal health standards under the Clean Air Act - both of which could cost the region hundreds of millions of dollars. It also contends that the agencies concealed serious known health effects that will be visited on local communities exposed to thousands of tons a year of diesel pollution.
