Port Task Force

Minutes of meeting on November 2, 2005

Attending: Emily Bockian-Landsburg, Laureen Boles, Ed Carreras, John Hadalski, Sean Jacobs, Joe Minott, Jack Lebeau, Lisa Magee, Bill Ross, Angela Skowronek, Kas Sellassic, Morris Fine, Alison Tracy, Brinda Shetty, Susan McDowell, Perry Pandya

Introductions

Workshop - We are aiming for the week of February 20th to host a workshop where port operators, ship pilots and others in the port community can come to learn about technologies, tax incentives, what other ports have done to reduce pollution/increase efficiency, etc.. EPA will cover the cost of the venue, Clean Air Council (CAC) will manage the logistics and registration process, vendors will be asked to sponsor lunch and table at the event. We would like to make the event attractive to ports as far south as Norfolk, VA and as far north as New York (for those that cannot attend the NY workshop in early February), but will focus on drawing a majority of the crowd from the Delaware Valley. Some suggestions included: Including an advertising plan; inviting port unions, Mid Atlantic Diesel Collaborative and Coast Guard participation; establishing a core group to work on logistics of the event; touching on air, land and water issues at the event.
Action items: List of invitees, both vendors and port industry (including union): The list will grow as we receive more suggestions from the stakeholders.
Speakers: Open to suggestion; EPA has confirmed some speakers.
Date, Venue, Budget: CAC to confirm after conference call with EPA
Agenda: CAC to finalize and circulate to stakeholders for input.

Maritime Advisory Council (MAC) - Sean Jacobs, Eric Cheung and Ed Carreras have been invited to present at the next MAC meeting on December 8th at La Veranda restaurant. We have been allotted a half-hour at the meeting. The 3 main points will be: 1) Introduction of CAC/Diesel Difference/Port Stakeholders. 2) Overview of technologies available, what other ports are doing to reduce pollution/increase efficiency. 3) Invitation to February workshop and upcoming stakeholder meeting.
Action items: Sean/Eric/Ed to meet on details of presentation sometime in Nov.

Community Involvement - It was suggested that we have an evening meeting to get more port community groups involved. The Water Dept. is currently working w/some community groups and might be able to secure their involvement. There is a growing community, both residential and business, in the Naval Yard area.
Action items: Sean to work on involvement of comm. groups.
Other stakeholders to send ideas on community involvement to Sean.

Scope of Project - Looking at entire port vs. one specific zone/area: Port of Philadelphia is large in scope and we need to be looking at the entire picture when approaching pollution issues OR we need to focus all our attention on one particular port with a small, measurable project and use the success to motivate other ports. CARE grant does not specify, but we need to look at the "hot spots" and the feasibility of working in one area vs. another. Perry reported that results of an EPA emissions inventory (strictly air related) will be coming out soon which should give us some more focus.
Action items: Wait for EPA study. Continue discussion at Dec. meeting.

New Stakeholders - We need to include more members from the ports of Philadelphia. This will be crucial in developing an inventory of equipment and overall picture of what environmental issues we are dealing with. The group decided to send suggestions for new stakeholders to Sean and then Sean will send out a compiled list of invitees to the stakeholders prior to each scheduled meeting. Some suggestions for new stakeholders included: PIDC (Ed Duffy), Coast Guard, City of Philadelphia Brownfields department, private developers, John Hock with the City Planning Commission, Exelon. We should also identify those area ports participating in the voluntary EPA Clean Ports program. Someone suggested some new invitees may require a letter of intent to represent their company and participate in the stakeholder process.
Action items: Stakeholders to send at least 1 suggestion for a new stakeholder to Sean prior to the December 12 meeting.
Sean to work on outreach to new contacts/invitees.
Sean/Perry Pandya to identify Phila. ports in the EPA Clean Ports program.
Sean to develop fact sheet for potential stakeholders.

Structure of Project - We got into a conversation regarding the structure of the stakeholder process and how to incorporate Diesel Difference and the multi-media elements of pollution at the ports. It was decided there will be a smaller "Gatekeeper" group that does the planning and executive decision-making of the stakeholders. This group will steer the stakeholder process and streamline decision-making. There will also be 3 subcommittees that focus on the three pollution medias: air, water, land. These subcommittees will keep the multi-media focus of the group and remain more technical in nature. Each of the 3 subcommittees will report to the stakeholders on their findings and recommendations. The "Gatekeeper" group and subcommittees will meet more often as the core diesel difference port subcommittee (stakeholders) grows in size.
Action items: Sean to develop "chain of command" structure for approval of group.

Mission/Goals - We need a more well defined mission for full stakeholder group and each of the 3 subcommittees. Morris Fine suggested using language developed by the Philadelphia Diesel Difference working group in the Spring of 2005 as an outline for a broader mission statement. Joe Minott (CAC) distributed copies of the final EPA CARE proposal. Susan McDowell (EPA) explained the EPA CARE grant process and what it means in EPA's Region 3. There are certain deliverables that need to be met in this grant by the end of the funding period (September 2006). We agreed that the group would review the grant proposal and bring suggestions on how to reach these deliverables to the next stakeholder meeting. This should help us develop a more detailed work plan, road map and specific action items
Action items: Stakeholders should review the grant and send suggestions on reaching deliverables to Sean.
Sean to develop mission statement for larger Stakeholder group. This statement should include language from PDD working group, deliverables from CARE grant proposal and other suggestions from the stakeholders.

Next meeting: Monday, December 12 at 1pm (location TBA)

-MEETING ADJOURNED-