Four community organizations have been selected by the Port of Los Angeles to share $310,000 in grant funding, pending harbor commission approval on Thursday, March 27.
Under the Harbor Community Benefit Grant Program, established by the port to fund projects intended to mitigate port-related impacts on the nearby communities of San Pedro and Wilmington, the recipients are:
- Coalition for Clean Air: $50,000 for a 2.5-day “Air Quality Bootcamp” for Wilmington and San Pedro residents.
- Los Angeles Maritime Institute: $70,000 so its Top Sail Program can provide 12 single-day field trips aboard tall ships for San Pedro elementary students, with the hands-on program including lessons on air and water quality, marine ecology, and pollution impacts.
- Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma: $90,000 to support the Asthma Intervention and Education Program with home visits and workshops for families in the port-adjacent communities, with resources including cleaning supplies and hypoallergenic bedding, along with education for managing asthma and air pollution-exposure.
- St. Mary Medical Center Foundation: $100,000 for a mobile respiratory care unit that provides screenings, consultations, and treatment for respiratory illnesses to underserved residents in Wilmington and San Pedro, addressing disparities in access to care.
The mitigation fund grew out of an agreement in 2008 between the port and Los Angeles city, and opponents to an environmental report related to the TraPac Container Terminal expansion project.
The harbor commission approved a TraPac expansion plan in 2008, allowing the terminal operator to process nearly 70% more cargo containers while producing fewer diesel emissions.
The project called for dredging to deepen the terminal’s berthing areas, renovating 3,000 feet of wharf, building 705 feet of new wharf, redeveloping 57 acres into container terminal backlands and establishing a new on-dock rail yard.
Sixteen groups at that time, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed an appeal against the TraPac project, which established the fund to address environmental impacts on neighboring communities.
The mitigation fund was aimed at addressing the impacts of that expansion on local communities.
To date, according to the port board report, the overall fund created to provide mitigation has distributed more than $7 million (not including the current ninth round awards in the Harbor Community Benefit Program portion of the program) to fund projects and studies to address port impacts on aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, health risks and land use for San Pedro and Wilmington.
Since 2013, the Harbor Community Benefit Program under that fund has dispersed community benefit grants totaling some $3.6 million.
The latest solicitation round drew 12 applications, out of which the board in December approved finalists.
Those four organizations and proposals will go before the harbor commission at 10 a.m. Thursday at Banning’s Landing Community Center, 100 E. Water St., in Wilmington, for approvals.