Coal in Oakland?
Despite a 2-year battle to stop the project, Oakland could still soon become the largest deep-water shipping port for coal on the U.S. West Coast
Scientists and environmentalists cite risks to human health
Rising temperatures linked to higher levels of local air pollution
Coal shipments to China would make Oakland part of a global chain of environmental impact
The Oakland Army Base, decommissioned since 1999, once saw generations of soldiers embarking for theaters of war in the Pacific, spanning eras of conflict including World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the First Gulf War.
Today, the same location at the Port of Oakland may soon be transformed to become home to the largest coal terminal on the U.S. West Coast, moving tons of bulk coal by rail from Utah to ships destined for ports in China and Mexico.
Despite an intensive 2-year battle to stop it — waged by the City Council, the Mayor, state legislators, public health officials, environmentalists and local community activists — the project is still on.
The legal battle took on greater significance on May 15, 2018, when U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria struck down a 2016 ruling by the City of Oakland to ban the transfer, shipment and storage of coal within the city.
Plans call for a transportation hub linking coal mines in Utah via rail to transfer facilities at the Port of Oakland. Open-topped rail cars will roll across western states into Oakland where they will unload their cargo to vessels docked at the already busy port — the fifth busiest in the United States. The facility could process up to 10 million tons of coal per year, according to planners.
If it happens, the $250 million, 34-acre facility, known as the Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal, would become the largest port for coal on the West Coast.
To understand coal’s impact, fine particulate matter is key
Coal in Oakland would mean more air pollution, according to the latest environmental impact study, published in 2016 by a public health advisory committee and backed by the Public Health Institute.
The study focuses on how coal contributes to fine particulate matter — known as PM2.5 —a source of air pollution especially prevalent whenever coal gets handled or transported, such as from rail to ships.
The study concludes “there are no known ways to mitigate particulate matter” from coal.
Coal dust as PM2.5 is known to carry harmful toxins, including cadmium, mercury, lead, arsenic, and crystalline silica, a substance known to cause cancer.
What is PM2.5?
PM2.5 is particulate matter about 30 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The 2.5 refers to the diameter in microns of the particulate matter. PM10, by comparison, is particulate matter which is 10 microns in diameter.
Because PM2.5 is so small, it’s lighter than air and can get suspended more easily and can raise to higher levels in the atmosphere, compared to heavier dust particles. PM2.5 can also bond with other particles in the air and can change their chemistry when exposed to sunlight.
When particulate matter becomes as small as PM2.5, it literally becomes the air we all breathe and influences our health.
Studies show PM2.5 is generated whenever coal is handled, transferred or transported.
Air quality at the Port of Oakland is already bad — introducing coal will make it worse
Oakland already has some of the worst air quality in the San Francisco Bay Area. The Port of Oakland is especially prone to pollution from diesel trucks and ships associated with port operations.
According to the latest “State of the Air” report by the American Lung Association, the San Francisco Bay Area ranks 6th worse in air pollution in the nation.
Climate change has been recently linked to rising air pollution in the Bay Area. On warmer days — a more frequent occurrence in the Bay Area in recent years — PM2.5 particulate matter forms higher levels of unhealthful ozone, according to studies.
Landmark study sheds light on why air pollution is bad for Oakland
The so-called “Six Cities Study” sheds light on why bringing coal to Oakland is a bad idea for health. The study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1993, established a clear link between fine particulate matter, air pollution and human mortality in six cities — Watertown, Massachusetts, Harriman, Tennessee, St. Louis, Missouri, Steubenville, Ohio, Portage, Wisconsin, and Topeka, Kansas.
Mitigating coal dust can never be perfect
Technological improvements in coal handling hasn’t reduced the health hazards of coal dust, according to scientists. Once coal dust is released into the air, it becomes a hazard to public health. Technology to reduce coal dust will never fully do away with the health concerns stemming from coal.
Developers have proposed domes as an attempt to reduce emissions from coal handling at the Port of Oakland. These domes are unproven as a means to fully mitigate particulate matter, according to pubic health researches who authored the 2016 study cited by local environmental activists.
China’s pollution is part of the world’s pollution
Oakland’s coal port plan calls for coal to be transferred and shipped to destinations in China, largely to fuel coal-burning power plants. The pollution generated would impact the world far beyond Oakland.
According to atmospheric scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego, particulate pollution from China, including from burning coal, can be measured as it drifts across the Pacific Ocean.
Helped along by global jet streams, the pollution takes about 5 days to make its way across the Pacific to the U.S. West Coast, according to data collected by research aircraft, instruments on the ground and at sea, and satellite imagery.
Atmospheric scientists have determined that pollution from China impacts precipitation in California and effects the snow pack in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Pollution from particulate matter can darken snow which increases the snow’s absorption of sunlight, thus causing it to melt faster, according to scientists.
Sources
Study: “An Assessment of the Health and Safety Implications of Coal Transport though Oakland,” The Public Health Advisory Panel on Coal, June 14, 2016
“Keeping Coal Out of Oakland,” blog post, Earthjustice, by Irene Gutierrez, October 13, 2015 https://earthjustice.org/blog/2015-october/keeping-coal-out-of-oakland
“Judge Overturns Oakland Ban on Handling and Storing Coal,” EarthJustice, May 16, 2018 — https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2018/judge-overturns-oakland-ban-on-handling-and-storing-coal
“Federal judge strikes down Oakland’s ban of coal facility operations,” by Kimberly Veklerov, San Francisco Chronicle, May 18, 2018 — https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Federal-judge-overturns-Port-of-Oakland-coal-ban-12916650.php
“What is PM2.5 and Why You Should Care” — by Wee Peng Ho, Bliss Air blog. https://blissair.com/what-is-pm-2-5.htm
“Fight for a Coal Free Oakland,” by Sierra Club, San Francisco Bay Chapter. https://www.sierraclub.org/san-francisco-bay/coalfreeoakland
“Oakland Coal Exports — Facts Sheet,” by Sierra Club — https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/sce-authors/u1054/1234%20Oakland%20Coal%20Exports%20Factsheet%2003_x1a.pdf
“Landmark air pollution study turns 20,” Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and interview with Douglas Dockery, by Karen Feldscher, January 7, 2014. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/six-cities-air-pollution-study-turns-20/
“An Association between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six U.S. Cities,” The New England Journal of Medicine, December 9, 1993, by Douglas W. Dockery, C. Arden Pope, Xiping Xu, John D. Spengler, James H. Ware, Martha E. Fay, Benjamin G. Ferris, Jr., and Frank E. Speizer — https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199312093292401
“Bay Area’s air quality near nation’s worst, climate change to blame: Report,” San Francisco Chronicle, by Sophie Haigney, April 17, 2018.
