Why Did Port Authority Scale Back Its Truck Emissions Program?
The Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal is the busiest seaport on the East Coast and the third largest in the United States.
Thousands of trucks pass through Newark's Ironbound neighborhood to reach the port, idling, bottlenecking and creating smog for an already environmentally-damaged area of the city.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection estimates that diesel particulate levels in the areas around the port are up to 1,000 times greater than is considered safe to breathe.
In 2010, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages Port Newark, announced a plan to replace the aging truck fleet that contributed to the poor air quality in the neighborhoods abutting the terminal.
The program didn't make much progress. The Village Voice reports that just over 400 trucks were replaced in the intervening half-decade. And in January, the Port Authority dramatically scaled back an already ineffective program.
The program missed its targets because "the truck drivers themselves...paid the majority of the amount for the trucks," said Max Rivlin-Nadler, who reported the story for The Village Voice. "They have $28,000 in [average] income a year. If they're paying off a $75,000 loan [for a new rig], they're not going to get very far."
Rivlin-Nadler spoke to WNYC's Soterios Johnson.
In a statement, the Port Authority said it still wants to phase out trucks built before 2007 from serving the Port Newark facility, but that they have not yet set a deadline to reach that goal.
