Comprehensive Environmental Management
Port of Seattle - "Environmental Compliance Assessment Program" - (Click here for full report)
The Port of Seattle began its Environmental Compliance Assessment Program (ECAP) in 2009 to evaluate and assist with tenant environmental compliance due to high public expectations and stringent compliance regulations for environmental quality. Striving to be the "cleanest, greenest, most energy-efficient port in the country," the port's ECAP process focuses on collaboratively working with its tenants and educating each on environmental mediums that may impact their operations. The ECAP utilizes a rating system that tenants are given during lease reviews to determine the potential risks associated with industrial activities. Tenants with higher risk ratings are then selected for ECAP assessments and follow-ups. The ECAP program has proven to be an effective tool for promoting healthy business practices while helping the port assure tenant environmental compliance, reduce environmental liability, promote pollution prevention and good environmental stewardship, and identify areas of concern.
Honorable Mention
Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles - "Water Resources Action Plan" - (Click here for full report)
The joint Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach Water Resources Action Plan, or WRAP, is a pioneering water quality initiative aimed at addressing the impacts of past, present and future port operations and helping prevent those operations from degrading existing water and sediment quality by targeting contamination sources harbor-wide. By documenting existing conditions in the harbor and systematically targeting potential pollution sources, the WRAP is enabling the two ports to get a head start on complying with stricter regulatory standards and lay out a groundwork for a successful water improvement strategy. It is also giving each port the flexibility to target its unique issues, providing a common framework which each can then tailor to its own situation.
Mitigation
Maryland Port Administration - "Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center and Environmental Education Outreach Programs" - (Click here for full report)
In order to construct its 141-acre Masonville Dredged Material Containment Facility to accommodate dredged material placement needs for the Port of Baltimore, the Maryland Port Administration's (MPA) project required mitigation for filling 130 acres of open water, one acre of vegetated wetlands and 10 acres of uplands in the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area. To offset loss of these habitats, the MPA developed a compensatory mitigation that centered on restoring Masonville Cove, a Baltimore City-designated Habitat Protection Area adjacent to the containment facility. The MPA also funded design and construction of Masonville Cove Environmental Education Center, a "near-zero net energy building" constructed specifically to improve community access to Masonville Cove natural areas and provide nearby recreational and environmental opportunities. During the 2008-2009 school year, 426 students and 19 teachers from 10 Baltimore City schools participated in more than 15 hands-on programs at the center. The MPA also held a professional development workshop for teachers at the center, sponsored 52 outreach programs at participating schools, and created or expanded nine schoolyard greening projects.
Honorable Mention
Port of Tacoma - "Gog-li-hi-te II Habitat Action Project" - (Click here for full report)
Named for a Puyallup Indian word meaning "where the land and waters meet," the Port of Tacoma's Gog-le-hi-te II Habitat Action Project supports juvenile salmon's transition from freshwater to the marine environment as they prepare for their migration to the Pacific Ocean. Completed in 2008 on a tidally-influenced stretch of the Puyallup River adjacent to Tacoma's Commencement Bay, the project is an important component of the port's commitment to restoration of Puget Sound and is critical to the port's environmental stewardship objectives as it actively prepares for future maritime industrial growth and creation of new, family-wage jobs. The $10,750,000 project created 6.84 acres of juvenile salmon aquatic habitat, effected removal of 145,000 tons of refuse and contaminated soils from a former City of Tacoma dump, and recreated a portion of the Puyallup River delta damaged during 100 years of urban activity.
Stakeholder Awareness, Education and Involvement
Port of Port Arthur - "Camp SeaPort" - (Click here for full report)
In 2008, the Port of Port Arthur started Camp SeaPort to establish an education platform for students to meet various maritime career professionals and learn about the local area's vast coastal resources. Camp SeaPort brings together the maritime industry, local youth and schools by giving students opportunities to tour marine facilities and jobsites, and learn about coastal resource management aboard a waterborne classroom. Supported by the port's board of commissioners through budget approvals, use of facilities and oftentimes the commissioners' personal time, port operations and administrative staff also provide organizational support, presentations, arrange transportation and solicit donations. Camp SeaPort's innovation involves presenting as many career options as possible in the span of a week-long course and having teachers as volunteers to take the content back to the classroom.
Environmental Enhancement
Port of Tacoma - "Demolition Program" (Click here for full report)
To make way for planned terminal, road and rail development, the Port of Tacoma launched a demolition program in June 2008 that called for removing 57 structures. Demolition contracts required at least 65 percent of the material to be reused or recycled. Collaborative, incentive-driven efforts resulted in reusing or recycling an average 87 percent - and in some cases more than 98 percent - of the demolition materials. To help maintain good air quality in and around the port, contractors were also required to use ultra-low sulfur diesel in any equipment used more than 40 hours on the project. The 7,071 tons of recycled or reused material kept about 275 dump truck loads of waste out of community landfills.
