Aerial view of World Oil Tank project site West of 710 Freeway
January 4 - Tuesday, City Council turned away nine members of the public who had gathered to leave public comment on an important hearing on Long Beach pollution.
While the impacts of COVID 19 were blamed for the delay, larger questions loom. Had the hearing took place, council members would have had to take a vote on whether to allow World Oil to construct two petroleum tanks less than a mile away from a large community park and two Westside elementary schools. The Long Beach Port and Port Commissioners both recommend that the tanks be permitted. They conclude that there are no "significant" environmental harms caused by the project. Appellants as well as local community members disagree. They contend that the Port's numbers are grossly underestimated. For instance, according to a more recent study cancer-causing emissions from the tanks could actually release 8.6 times more cancer-causing compounds than estimated by Port officials. Another cancer-causing toxin, benzene, may even be 34 times greater than the Long Beach Port's data reflects.
- ADVERTISEMENT- In March, the South Coast AQMD will consider updating its rules relating the cancer-causing compounds based on the study pointed to by Appellants and concerned local residents. It's for this reason that opponents asked Councilmembers not to approve the project until the AQMD makes its ruling on the most current data. Not only does the Long Beach Port not want to wait until the science and rules are more settled, the Port is also opposed to completing a full Environmental Impact Report. A move that Appellants say is in the best interest of families, students and children living beside the proposed petroleum tanks.
There are already more than half a dozen tanks at the site emitting pollutants. The hearing was postponed until January 18th. The two-week long postponement is in part due to the fact that we are already short a City Council meeting this month following Mayor Garcia's request to host his State of the City speech Tuesday, January 11th. The City Manager admitted to Councilmember Stacy Mungo that there was in fact a possibility that the pollution hearing may not even take place January 18th. The uncertainty is because of new COVID 19 guidelines that may grow more strict in coming weeks. Tuesday, the City Council chambers was nearly empty aside from Councilmembers, some City staff and a few Appellants for the hearing. Everyone else sat on generously spaced aluminum folding chairs beside the hallway of the Entrance to City Hall. Only when it was their time to leave public comment would they be swiftly ushered in by City Clerk staff. Otherwise the public watched the proceedings on the large screen spanning the length of the entrance to City Hall. Councilmember Uranga made the motion to postpone the hearing. He stated that his motion would lead to greater public engagement. More members of the public had signed up to speak on the pollution agenda item than any other. These residents were not permitted to leave the comments they prepared. Despite the inconvenience, the seats in the hallway were full, requiring some residents to stand. For this reason, one member of the public lamented that the uncertainty of the pandemic was all the more reason not to postpone the hearing. The idea being that with so much of the public already present, a delay would discourage those who already came out to participate Tuesday night.
The chance City Council chambers would be closed altogether in the next two weeks as COVID numbers worsen is also a likely outcome. Considering the notable apathy among Long Beach residents, usually agenda items such as this are not well attended by the public. But the political landscape reveals that the stakes are considerably higher.
Mayor Garcia, having recently announced his bid for Congress, faces an opponent with a resume for fighting pollution that far outweighs his own. With so much of the nation's attention focused on curbing the effects of climate change the Mayor's opponent, Bell Gardens Assemblymember Christina Garcia, is better positioned on this platform issue.
Thus, all the more reason to postpone what may be a less than flattering Council vote just a week before the Mayor's final address to the City he has presided over nearly 8 years.
Vice Mayor Rex Richardson, being the highest Long Beach elected official to have currently entered the race to succeed Mayor Garcia to date, must also grapple with a voting public growing more alarmed by local environmental risk. On one hand Vice Mayor Richardson tapped in to local sentiment on pollution when he authored a local ballot measure that placed a small tax on oil companies and allocated the funds toward youth programming. But because the hearing was short circuited today, we do not yet know where the Vice Mayor stands on this present pollution issue. If this hearing ever takes place, there is also the question of whether the Vice Mayor should have a vote at all. The Vice Mayor sits on the board of the South Coast AQMD.
The hearing Appellants are asking, among other demands, that the Council vote down the project until the South Coast AQMD makes a decision on a rule that could mean regulators agree that the proposed tanks are far more dangerous to neighboring elementary schools than previously thought.
In times past, the Vice Mayor has recused himself from agenda items where, for instance, the union he once worked for sought a resolution. The Vice Mayor then said that while his recusal was not required he was doing so out of an abundance of caution. Here however, quite more is at stake regarding this pollution hearing than a mere Council resolution praising a local union. Politics aside, the reason this hearing is such a hot button issue is because Long Beach is at the center of our nation's pollution and climate crisis. For two decades we've toped the list for air pollution across the nation. Since the start of the pandemic two years ago, our pollution has only gotten worse. In fact, according to the California Air Resource Board, 14.5 extra tons of smog from nitrogen dioxide is polluting our city each day. Following a 9 to 0 vote, Council postponed the pollution hearing. Attorneys and administrators on both sides of the issue packed up their bags and went home. The members of the public streamed out of City Hall as well. None of them knowing when, where or under what conditions the next hearing would occur - if at all. Written by: Franklin Sims, 2022 Long Beach Mayoral Candidate