Two years after Newsdesk.org first examined high levels of air pollution in West Oakland, progress towards helping this community breathe easier is moving slowly. Thorny projects, including cleanups at the port and a local Superfund site, are hard to keep moving. But the staff and volunteers at the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project (WOEIP) consistently push policies and changes that will eventually clear the air in this part of town. Here's an update on their efforts...

The The Bay Area Toxic Tour: West Oakland and The Port of Oakland series, by reporters Kwan Booth and Kim Komenich, was originally produced and published May 13-June 17, 2009 Newsdesk.org. That investigative project was funded by individual donors using the Spot.us crowdfunding service. This update is part of Oakland Local's original series on polluted properties in West Oakland: Toxic Tour 2: Right Beneath Our Feet. Donate now to help us continue this coverage.

For decades, California has had to tackle some of the consistently highest levels of air pollution in the U.S. -- and the East Bay is no exception. Even within that context, West Oakland stands out.

This four-mile-wide, two-mile-long neighborhood is home to the nation's fifth busiest container port, three major freeways, and both passenger and freight trains. There also are smaller sources such as gas-powered leaf blowers, wood-burning fireplaces and stoves, and personal vehicles.

West Oakland also has some of the highest asthma rates in Alameda county. The air can be so bad that even new residents complain about the "West Oakland cough".

High levels of particulate matter (a key type of air pollution) in West Oakland are monitored by the California Air Resource Board (CARB), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), university scholars and local activists. These organizations agree that there is one major culprit behind West Oakland's poor air quality: diesel engines -- on ships, trucks, and trains.

Since these groups all use different techniques to collect and analyze data, they disagree about the order in which to list the main sources of West Oakland air pollution. But clearly the top three (in no particular order) are:

• High-capacity diesel engines on board container ships that dock at the Port of Oakland
  
• Local diesel trucks that bring containers to and from nearby warehouses
  
• Long-distance diesel trucks that ferry containers and other goods throughout the state -- passing through West Oakland on freeways that run through the neighborhood.

Container ship emissions

Over the past two years little has been done to directly address diesel emissions from ships docked at the Port of Oakland.

Why? It's complicated.

Many of the ships docking in Oakland come from other countries. While docked, they need electrical power -- which can come either from plugging in at the dock, or from running their on-board generators or engines. It's not always clear who has the authority to make these ships use cleaner power available from the dock, instead of their dirty engines -- many of which run on fuel that doesn't meet California's clean standards.

Here's the fragmented enforcement picture: The City of Oakland can set policy. American violators can be punished by California state agencies. International violators can only be prosecuted by federal agencies or a supervising agency overseas. And all of these enforcement options run the risk of chasing shipping business away from Oakland to other west coast ports.

So even when enforcement authority is established, the shipping companies ultimately hold the upper hand.

Local diesel trucks

Regarding truck pollution at Oakland's port, so far only local truckers have been addressed.

Last year, the local diesel rigs serving the port ("drayage trucks"), completed Phase I of the port's Comprehensive Truck Management Program. This program required Port of Oakland drayage truckers -- most of whom own their rigs -- to upgrade or retrofit with specialized filters.

In 2010 Oakland Local and Newsdesk covered demonstrations and arguments around this program. Despite concerns about local truckers' ability to pay for these upgrades, the requirements went through. (A similar program for rigs throughout the state has been postponed.)

Government officials created grants to cover estimated upgrade costs of $2000-$5000 per truck. Unfortunately the actual price tag for most drivers was closer to $27,000. Local owner/operator truckers had to pay that difference -- often with high-interest, last-minute loans.

Luella Caldwell, a local big rig driver and mechanic, considers the program a success -- mainly due to the efforts of owner/operator truckers to comply with the law, even at personal expense.

"To my heart, I know owner/operators who haven't seen their families in three or four months because they've been working off their debt for retrofitting," she said.

And at the end of 2014, drivers will have to upgrade to another, higher standard.

Caldwell is impressed by the effectiveness of the filtering technology, "The air comes out cleaner than it went in. You could put a sandwich on exhaust pipe and eat it afterwards."

At least one local research project seems to back up these kinds of claims. Recently Thomas Kirchstetter, Tim Dallman and Robert Harley of the University of California-Berkeley found that compliance with the Comprehensive Truck Management Program has already cut nitrogen oxide emissions at the port by 40%, and particulate matter emissions by 50%.

Oakland Local original video: West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project volunteers in action, keeping an eye on trucks and the Port of Oakland.

Long-distance diesel trucks

Local drayage trucks are only a small part of West Oakland's overall air pollution problem.

As a certified semi truck mechanic, Caldwell is also an inspector for the California Air Resources Board (CARB). She says she's seen lots of violations in West Oakland, and encourages local residents to check for the telltale black smoke which indicates a truck hasn't been upgraded properly.

She also reasons that there are more violations in the area because it's hard to discern which streets the big rigs are not allowed to drive on. "San Leandro's truck routes are clearly marked with big signs; Oakland's are not," Caldwell observed.

She suggests that people take notes when they see a truck driver idling, spewing smoke, or driving down the wrong street. "Write down the time of day, location, and license plate number. Then call CARB: 1-800-END-SMOG (1-800-363-7664). The driver will get fined and it'll stop."

SEE AND DOWNLOAD MAP: Oakland truck routes and prohibited streets

Clearing West Oakland's air, one meeting at a time

Improving air quality is a complex process that requires long-term commitment to research, learn and advocate. Most residents may not be able to regularly attend local work groups and hearings on a monthly or bimonthly basis over a period of years. They may not have the connections or background knowledge to figure out what's behind promises or claims from agencies, shippers, and other players.

That's where WOEIP comes in.

The port isn't West Oakland's only air pollution problem. This community action group also is playing a leading role in making sure a West Oakland Superfund site, which has been leaking toxic chemicals into the air, gets cleaned up.

When the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused Caltrans to move the 880 freeway in West Oakland, a toxic site was discovered that still hasn't been cleaned up. In 1995, as workers tore down the damaged double-decker and prepared to convert the space to today's Mandela Parkway, they accidentally opened up pockets of vinyl chloride -- a known human carcinogen.

PG&E discovered that numerous companies had contaminated the soil over a period of decades. Chemicals had mixed to form volatile gases. The site of this emergency eventually became a U.S. EPA Superfund site. This cleanup project has been a stalled "work in progress" for almost 20 years.

(State officials halted the 2011 Superfund cleanup plans; they've requested more testing before soil and groundwater treatment can begin. Currently, cleanup work is scheduled to begin in 2012. The next Community Advisory Group meeting about this project is Oct. 17 at the Mandela Gateway Apartments. This neighborhood's lead cleanup project, covered in our Toxic Tour II was also a project of this Community Advisory Group.)

Local residents have been frustrated by the lack of progress in the Superfund cleanup, and by personnel turnover at the federal level. This has made the cleanup project a moving target: Not only has the cleanup responsibility shifted from one part of the EPA to another, but the federal employees in charge of the project have changed several times.

Nicanor Mendoza has lived in West Oakland for over twenty years -- less than two blocks away from the Superfund site. He was in the neighborhood when EPA emergency teams tried to eliminate the toxic gases by burning them off.

In Spanish, he described a situation which bred community distrust: "For three years they had an incinerator and they were walking around in full protection. Why were our children with nothing?"

Mendoza has been active since the contamination was discovered, attending both protests and community meetings over the years. "It's the same, the same, the same. New people show up for the first time at the meeting, they ask questions, and [EPA staff] give the same explanations that they've already given."

Negative experiences and perceived lack of progress have congealed into local cynicism.

"They do a new study and it turns out the levels of contamination are even higher. So is it a pack of lies or what?" Mendoza continues, "The people who are in charge of these things just don't communicate with the people."

Mendoza stopped attending the Community Advisory Group meetings earlier this year.

Leana Rosetti is the Community Involvement Coordinator for the Superfund site. She explains how WOEIP Co-Director Brian Beveridge has been able to help out. "He's a great leader to have in the group. He has a lot of experience working with government agencies and he understands the limitations of what government can and cannot do."

Beveridge is known to the community. At monthly meetings, he both explains the evolving cleanup process to frustrated residents and keeps government bureaucrats in check.

Rosetti says that as a result of WOEIP's involvement, Oakland's EPA Superfund site is modeling a more engaged Community Advisory Group than other Superfund sites -- with Beveridge as Community Co-Chair. The EPA hopes to replicate this model in other parts of the country.

Community monitoring helps define, address problems

WOEIP has a history of community engagement through participatory data collection. This kind of data collection is extremely important because it measures actual levels experienced by residents in West Oakland.

WOEIP volunteer Cassandra Martin is a program associate with the group's Particulate Matter Survey. "I started out with the truck-counting survey, and now I run the project for air quality monitoring. We wear a lot of hats in this office, but it's all fun and good learning about the different things going on here."

This summer, Martin worked with Tony Marks-Block to run the Oakland East Bay Academy for Young Scientists. This WOEIP/UC Berkeley partnership trains local high school students how to use a portable air quality monitor with mapping technology. This backpack monitor doesn't just sample one location; it takes continuous assessments along a neighborhood route using an integrated GPS (global positioning system) device.

The students also analyze the data, write up their findings, and submit them for publication in a scientific journal.

Margaret Gordon, WOEIP Co-Director, has a long-recognized role as a West Oakland community activist. She has provided a community voice on the Board of Port Commissioners since 2007 -- although currently it's unclear whether she will remain on the Board

Gordon has consistently asked the tough questions that Oakland residents need answered. How can we encourage boats and barges to tap into the port's power grid and turn off their dirty engines? If the Port must expand its power capacity by building a new power plant, could West Oakland residents also tap into that power supply to lower their electric bills? Could a new power plant run on a cleaner or greener fuel, or would that just create more problems than it solves?

Like many nonprofits, the staff and volunteers at WOEIP work long hours to make miracles out of donations and grants. They are a consistent presence in maze of meetings, events, committees, and activities that have direct impact on environmental pollution and cleanup in West Oakland. Brian Beveridge, Margaret Gordon, and Cassandra Martin have built a working partnership and allied themselves with other agencies and activists to amplify their collective impact and ensure collaboration across silos.

Tomorrow (Sept. 10) the West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project will celebrate this year's successful actions and collaborations at its third annual Willowfest, 11am-5pm in Willow Park (14th and Willow).

MORE TO COME! Read all stories in this series: Toxic Tour 2: Right Beneath Our Feet.

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The original Bay Area Toxic Tour series was published in 2009 by Newsdesk.org