Key Freight Transportation Challenges

Environment

Growing concerns about public health, air and water quality, land use and development patterns, plus an improved understanding of environmental science, have resulted in a greater emphasis on freight transportation projects that are both environmentally sound and economically sustainable.

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and subsequent laws established requirements for environmental impacts assessments for major transportation projects, giving special attention to air pollution, wetlands preservation, and coastal protection. Today, environmental considerations are critical in planning and designing freight projects. The environmental review process, however, can be complicated and time-consuming, involving several public agencies and private sector interests. Federal and state resource agencies are responsible for conducting environmental reviews of projects funded by federal and/or state monies. In recent years, efforts to streamline the review process have included the involvement of review agencies earlier in the process. This approach has proven successful in a number of cases.

Obviously, environmental resources can affect and be affected by all aspects of freight transportation, including the location of facilities, goods movement, vehicle performance, and energy use. For example, increases in urban truck traffic can reduce air quality and increase noise. Conversely, improved access to intermodal freight terminals and the timing of traffic lights to reduce truck idling can decrease air pollution and noise. More efficient marine transportation facilities and operations also could result in congestion relief on highways in some locations.

Some of the key environmental issues facing the freight industry today include air pollution, dredging, the introduction of nonindigenous species, and noise. Much progress has been made in addressing these and other environmental concerns, but there is always room for improvement.

Diesel engines in heavy-duty trucks, locomotives, and commercial vessels continue to be major producers of nitrogen oxides (NOx), which contribute to ground-level ozone (smog) and regional haze. Although reductions in NOx emissions have been made in recent years, continued public health and environmental concerns have prompted EPA to move forward with a rule to reduce the sulfur content of highway diesel fuel beginning in 2007. A reduction in sulfur content will enable the use of pollution control technologies similar to those used in passenger cars. When this rule is fully implemented, EPA expects NOx emissions to decline by 2.6 million tons a year.

Like other ports and harbors, Boston Harbor is dredged periodically to maintain adequate depths for ships. Source: Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company

Dredging of ports and harbors and disposing of dredged materials, particularly those contaminated with heavy metals and other toxic pollutants, are major port industry concerns. Because many U.S. ports were built near the mouths of rivers, the accumulation of silt is a common problem. Many ports and harbors must be dredged to create deeper and broader channels to accommodate ships. The Port of New York and New Jersey, which is naturally shallow, is one of the most heavily dredged areas in the United States. According to EPA, about 10 percent of sediment underlying the nation's surface waters has been contaminated and requires special handling and disposal methods, such as confinement in upland disposal sites.

Between 1990 and 1999, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged an average of 271 million cubic yards of materials per year at an average annual cost of $572 million (USACE 2001). In 1999, ports spent an additional $110 million on dredging for new construction and the modernization of facilities (USDOT MARAD 2001).

Another environmental issue facing the freight industry is the introduction of nonindigenous plant and animal species into the United States. These species arrive by air and water transportation from all over the world and by surface modes from Canada and Mexico. In the 1980s and early 1990s, more than 205 known non-native species were either introduced or first detected. Examples of non-native species include the zebra mussel and the Mediterranean fruit fly. Entering the United States in the 1980s when ship ballast water was discharged from European freighters in the Great Lakes, the zebra mussel has now spread to 20 states, causing damage to water intake pipes, filtration equipment, and electric generating plants. According to EPA, more than 21 billion gallons of ballast water are discharged into U.S. waters each year (USEPA 2001). The federal government and transportation industries, and communities have instituted monitoring and treatment programs to deal with this environmental threat. EPA is also investigating what options are available under the Clean Water Act and other laws to control the introduction of non-native species from ballast water.

With projected growth in freight volumes and increases in usage of the highway and air modes, noise reduction will continue to be a major challenge for the transportation community. Millions of people who live or work near highways, airports, and rail yards are exposed to annoying levels of noise. Although this rarely leads to hearing impairment, transportation-related noise can result in loss of sleep and related health problems. Efforts to reduce noise include the use of quieter aircraft, the installation of noise barriers along roadways, and improved mufflers in motor vehicles.

In an era of heightened awareness of the damaging effects of pollution, noise, and other problems, reducing these unintended consequences, particularly on those most affected, might well be as important for the future success of the freight transportation system as building new infrastructure and implementing new operational strategies.

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