The electrified highway that could change the future of trucking (and this polluted San Diego neighborhood)
This story is the second in a series by Reckon and Next City examining how Black and Brown communities across the U.S. are working to hold corporations accountable for environmental injustices. Read the first story, on a new rail line planned in Africatown, the Alabama neighborhood founded by formerly enslaved people.For decades, San Diego’s port communities like Barrio Logan and National City have been plagued with unhealthy air quality. Residents of communities bordering the 34 miles of coastline encompassed by the Port of San Diego face a barrage of toxic pollutants and other hazardous conditions from industrial shipyards, intersecting neighborhood freeways, and even the U.S. Navy. They believe these hazardous conditions would never be tolerated in San Diego’s more affluent areas.The fight for clean air has been a long, uphill battle for these working-class, historically Mexican-American and immigrant communities. But after years of advocacy by residents and activists, the Port of San Diego has begun to take steps to offset the long history of environmental racism and injustice.In May, the Board of Port Commissioners for the San Diego Unified Port District voted unanimously to double the board’s annual contribution to the Maritime Industrial Impact Fund (MIIF) and help curb emissions by expanding the fund’s scope to include several electrification projects.“For decades, communities living next to the port marine cargo terminals have had the burden of pollution from the operations at these port terminals,” says Kyle Heiskala, Policy Co-Director for the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), an environmental justice nonprofit that pressed the board to up its MIIF contribution. “They have not seen a ton of benefits for the local residents living near the port, and instead get a lot of the negative impacts in terms of air pollution.”Disproportionate environmental impactToday, Barrio Logan is one of the most polluted areas of San Diego County and ranks among the top 5% of California’s most polluted areas. The community is more than 85% Hispanic, and more than a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. Both Barrio Logan and neighboring National City rank in the 90th percentile for some of the highest concentrations of diesel particulate matter in all of California. The byproduct of exhaust from trucks, buses, trains, ships, and other equipment, the pollutant has been deemed carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. According to the EPA, due to their proximity to the port, rail yards, and freeways, residents have an 85% to 95% higher risk of developing cancer than the rest of the U.S.Historically, outcry over the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards created by the Port have been ignored. Some have even blamed residents for living in communities that border the Port and its industries, but Heiskala notes that San Diego’s ‘Portside’ communities predate the Port and its industries.“People need to remember that the neighborhoods and communities were here first. The Port was established in 1962 – these neighborhoods are over a hundred years old,” he said. “All of the industries that we’ve seen grow over the past five decades have been introduced into these communities of color as a result of race-based land use decisions that took neighborhoods and cited them for industry.”In 2023, Barrio Logan moved forward with a new community plan, marking the first update to the neighborhood’s plan in over 40 years and a victory in residents’ long battle to add buffers between the port and neighboring communities. The most consequential update amended the city’s zoning laws banning the creation of mixed commercial/residential zones directly adjacent to residential areas.“We don’t see shipyards in La Jolla for very historically documented reasons,” Heiskala adds, pointing to a mostly-white neighborhood just 15 minutes north of Barrio Logan.Steps forwardIn 2010, the board established the MIIF to address some of these historic inequities and aid communities bordering the Port. The Port will now contribute 4% percent of its gross maritime industrial revenue – an estimated $1.55 million in fiscal year 2025. Previously, a 2% cap had been approved in June 2023.The Port’s increase to the MIIF would contribute to various methods and strategies to offset the impacts of industrial pollution. Over $500,000 has already been spent on equipment like air filters and air monitors for homes and elementary schools adjacent to the port, to help filter indoor air and monitor quality.The MIIF has funded a variety of community programs, notably the FRANC Program, a free electric shuttle system that connects multiple destinations throughout National City.Heiskala says that the board of port commissioners’ commitment is evident in the progress made towards the Maritime Clean Air Strategy goals and the Port has seen immense progress in converting cargo handling equipment to electric. The Port of San Diego now boasts the nation’s first cohort of all-electric cranes and all-electric tug boat, with a goal of zero-emission trucks and cargo handling equipment by 2030.Too little, too late?Not all residents have been impressed with the Port’s progress in meeting its emissions goals. Lydia Young, a community organizer who lives in Logan Heights, believes the Port’s actions are only a fraction of what’s needed to address a long cycle of neglect in San Diego’s portside communities.“The MIIF is a good first step that’s decades too late,” Young says, adding that the $1.55 million contribution is a mere fraction of the Port’s revenue and local impact. The Port of San Diego’s website says it had a “$9.2 billion overall economic impact in San Diego County” in 2019.“At this rate, the MIIF would support the fiscal average of one two-story house a year in San Diego,” Young says. “For an industry that makes billions from our land and labor each year at the risk of our health, this is nowhere near enough.”Dr. Vi Nguyen, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente San Diego and co-founder of San Diego Pediatricians For Clean Air, also believes more must be done to address the needs of children and families in portside communities.“There’s a lot more money being invested in mitigation, but the health effects on these communities span generations, and a couple of million dollars isn’t going to fix everything,” Nguyen says.Most of Dr. Nguyen’s patients and their families live in Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, and National City. And although the cost to reduce emissions at the Port is steep, Dr. Nguyen says it pales in comparison to the long-term costs of failing to do so.“Just in terms of asthma, the downstream cost to us as a healthcare system is astronomical,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Exposure to PM 2.5 during the first and second trimester of pregnancy and in the first years of life skyrockets the chance of developmental delay, lower IQ, anxiety, depression, and psychotic experiences. Having a child with autism or developmental delay is a lifetime of cost to the individual and the families and communities.”Moving toward electrificationIn addition to MIIF allocations, San Diego’s portside communities have received funding for more emissions-reduction projects.Last year, National City received an $8.5 million federal grant to create a plug-in electrification project for idling ships to tap into the city’s power grid to charge from the shore. Advocates foresee that the biggest challenge is likely the transition of the local trucking fleet from diesel to electric trucks. In March, the Port also approved a developer to build and operate a zero-emission truck stop in National City, capable of charging up to 40% of the port’s trucking fleet.But the U.S. trucking industry’s decentralized structure has complicated efforts to convert San Diego’s local trucking fleet. “When the cranes stop operating at the end of the day, it’s off and sits there on the terminal. But these trucks are driving all over the community,” Heiskala explains. Currently, federal rules make it difficult to transition from diesel to electric, and regulations dictating the number of hours a truck driver is allowed to drive before they’re required to break don’t take into account the time it takes to charge electric trucks.“The current board of Port Commissioners as a majority has recognized their responsibility to undoing those historical harms,” Hesikala said. “We have to do it because of climate change, but we also owe it to the generations of people who have been suffering and literally dying from the pollution.”Like the history of San Diego’s portside communities themselves, the path to a zero-emissions port has been complicated. The most recent victory in funding and the commitment to further electrification, however, signal a potential turning point.Though the fight against industrial pollution in San Diego’s portside communities is far from over, for the first time in decades, there is a sense of progress and hope for cleaner air and healthier communities.Roberto Camacho is a Chicano freelance multimedia journalist from San Diego, California. His reporting typically focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration, Chicano/Latino issues, hip-hop culture, and their intersections to social justice. Follow him on Twitter/IG/Threads: @rob_camacho_sd
After a long battle, San Diego’s Port has doubled its commitment to offset the impacts of industrial pollution in neighboring communities.
This story is the second in a series by Reckon and Next City examining how Black and Brown communities across the U.S. are working to hold corporations accountable for environmental injustices. Read the first story, on a new rail line planned in Africatown, the Alabama neighborhood founded by formerly enslaved people.
For decades, San Diego’s port communities like Barrio Logan and National City have been plagued with unhealthy air quality. Residents of communities bordering the 34 miles of coastline encompassed by the Port of San Diego face a barrage of toxic pollutants and other hazardous conditions from industrial shipyards, intersecting neighborhood freeways, and even the U.S. Navy. They believe these hazardous conditions would never be tolerated in San Diego’s more affluent areas.
The fight for clean air has been a long, uphill battle for these working-class, historically Mexican-American and immigrant communities. But after years of advocacy by residents and activists, the Port of San Diego has begun to take steps to offset the long history of environmental racism and injustice.
In May, the Board of Port Commissioners for the San Diego Unified Port District voted unanimously to double the board’s annual contribution to the Maritime Industrial Impact Fund (MIIF) and help curb emissions by expanding the fund’s scope to include several electrification projects.
“For decades, communities living next to the port marine cargo terminals have had the burden of pollution from the operations at these port terminals,” says Kyle Heiskala, Policy Co-Director for the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), an environmental justice nonprofit that pressed the board to up its MIIF contribution. “They have not seen a ton of benefits for the local residents living near the port, and instead get a lot of the negative impacts in terms of air pollution.”
Disproportionate environmental impact
Today, Barrio Logan is one of the most polluted areas of San Diego County and ranks among the top 5% of California’s most polluted areas. The community is more than 85% Hispanic, and more than a quarter of residents live below the poverty line. Both Barrio Logan and neighboring National City rank in the 90th percentile for some of the highest concentrations of diesel particulate matter in all of California. The byproduct of exhaust from trucks, buses, trains, ships, and other equipment, the pollutant has been deemed carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. According to the EPA, due to their proximity to the port, rail yards, and freeways, residents have an 85% to 95% higher risk of developing cancer than the rest of the U.S.
Historically, outcry over the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards created by the Port have been ignored. Some have even blamed residents for living in communities that border the Port and its industries, but Heiskala notes that San Diego’s ‘Portside’ communities predate the Port and its industries.
“People need to remember that the neighborhoods and communities were here first. The Port was established in 1962 – these neighborhoods are over a hundred years old,” he said. “All of the industries that we’ve seen grow over the past five decades have been introduced into these communities of color as a result of race-based land use decisions that took neighborhoods and cited them for industry.”
In 2023, Barrio Logan moved forward with a new community plan, marking the first update to the neighborhood’s plan in over 40 years and a victory in residents’ long battle to add buffers between the port and neighboring communities. The most consequential update amended the city’s zoning laws banning the creation of mixed commercial/residential zones directly adjacent to residential areas.
“We don’t see shipyards in La Jolla for very historically documented reasons,” Heiskala adds, pointing to a mostly-white neighborhood just 15 minutes north of Barrio Logan.
Steps forward
In 2010, the board established the MIIF to address some of these historic inequities and aid communities bordering the Port. The Port will now contribute 4% percent of its gross maritime industrial revenue – an estimated $1.55 million in fiscal year 2025. Previously, a 2% cap had been approved in June 2023.
The Port’s increase to the MIIF would contribute to various methods and strategies to offset the impacts of industrial pollution. Over $500,000 has already been spent on equipment like air filters and air monitors for homes and elementary schools adjacent to the port, to help filter indoor air and monitor quality.
The MIIF has funded a variety of community programs, notably the FRANC Program, a free electric shuttle system that connects multiple destinations throughout National City.
Heiskala says that the board of port commissioners’ commitment is evident in the progress made towards the Maritime Clean Air Strategy goals and the Port has seen immense progress in converting cargo handling equipment to electric. The Port of San Diego now boasts the nation’s first cohort of all-electric cranes and all-electric tug boat, with a goal of zero-emission trucks and cargo handling equipment by 2030.
Too little, too late?
Not all residents have been impressed with the Port’s progress in meeting its emissions goals. Lydia Young, a community organizer who lives in Logan Heights, believes the Port’s actions are only a fraction of what’s needed to address a long cycle of neglect in San Diego’s portside communities.
“The MIIF is a good first step that’s decades too late,” Young says, adding that the $1.55 million contribution is a mere fraction of the Port’s revenue and local impact. The Port of San Diego’s website says it had a “$9.2 billion overall economic impact in San Diego County” in 2019.
“At this rate, the MIIF would support the fiscal average of one two-story house a year in San Diego,” Young says. “For an industry that makes billions from our land and labor each year at the risk of our health, this is nowhere near enough.”
Dr. Vi Nguyen, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente San Diego and co-founder of San Diego Pediatricians For Clean Air, also believes more must be done to address the needs of children and families in portside communities.
“There’s a lot more money being invested in mitigation, but the health effects on these communities span generations, and a couple of million dollars isn’t going to fix everything,” Nguyen says.
Most of Dr. Nguyen’s patients and their families live in Barrio Logan, Logan Heights, and National City. And although the cost to reduce emissions at the Port is steep, Dr. Nguyen says it pales in comparison to the long-term costs of failing to do so.
“Just in terms of asthma, the downstream cost to us as a healthcare system is astronomical,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Exposure to PM 2.5 during the first and second trimester of pregnancy and in the first years of life skyrockets the chance of developmental delay, lower IQ, anxiety, depression, and psychotic experiences. Having a child with autism or developmental delay is a lifetime of cost to the individual and the families and communities.”
Moving toward electrification
In addition to MIIF allocations, San Diego’s portside communities have received funding for more emissions-reduction projects.
Last year, National City received an $8.5 million federal grant to create a plug-in electrification project for idling ships to tap into the city’s power grid to charge from the shore. Advocates foresee that the biggest challenge is likely the transition of the local trucking fleet from diesel to electric trucks. In March, the Port also approved a developer to build and operate a zero-emission truck stop in National City, capable of charging up to 40% of the port’s trucking fleet.
But the U.S. trucking industry’s decentralized structure has complicated efforts to convert San Diego’s local trucking fleet. “When the cranes stop operating at the end of the day, it’s off and sits there on the terminal. But these trucks are driving all over the community,” Heiskala explains. Currently, federal rules make it difficult to transition from diesel to electric, and regulations dictating the number of hours a truck driver is allowed to drive before they’re required to break don’t take into account the time it takes to charge electric trucks.
“The current board of Port Commissioners as a majority has recognized their responsibility to undoing those historical harms,” Hesikala said. “We have to do it because of climate change, but we also owe it to the generations of people who have been suffering and literally dying from the pollution.”
Like the history of San Diego’s portside communities themselves, the path to a zero-emissions port has been complicated. The most recent victory in funding and the commitment to further electrification, however, signal a potential turning point.
Though the fight against industrial pollution in San Diego’s portside communities is far from over, for the first time in decades, there is a sense of progress and hope for cleaner air and healthier communities.
Roberto Camacho is a Chicano freelance multimedia journalist from San Diego, California. His reporting typically focuses on criminal justice reform, immigration, Chicano/Latino issues, hip-hop culture, and their intersections to social justice. Follow him on Twitter/IG/Threads: @rob_camacho_sd