LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles and Long Beach region has the worst ozone pollution in the nation, according to a study by the American Lung Association.

The booming warehouse industry in Southern California has raised environmental concerns over the air pollution created by the trucks that go in and out of these hubs.

In response, the South Coast Air Quality Management District implemented a program in 2021 aimed at incentivizing companies to help reduce their emissions.

The Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions program or WAIRE for short, has had a slow roll out since then. This year it entered Phase 3 with warehouses from 100,000 to 149,999 square feet in size having to submit their first reports. All required warehouses must be fully phased into the program by 2025.

The way it works is through a menu of changes operators can choose from to reduce air quality impacts. They then get rewarded through points from the AQMD for completing those actions. 

NFI industries are one of the largest logistics fleets in the country and operate warehouses subject to WAIRE. They are already racking up points with their electric truck fleet going into operation this year.  

“We put processes in place at the guard shack, which is where the trucks are going to enter to make sure we recorded the truck type, make sure you recorded the truck entering and leaving, and then making sure that information was uploaded into a database to make sure we got the proper credits for our carbon emission offsets,” said President of Port Services at NFI Industries, Brian Webb about making sure they are tracking their points. 

He says the Ontario based company changed electric technology years ago before this regulation was put in place and have seen the cuts to their emission contributions. 

“We have driven three million miles on trucks. We have offset about 5600 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, and the equivalent of that is about 1200 vehicles per year,” said Webb. 

They were able to jumpstart their electric truck operation through the JETSI project, a program helping fund these investments through grants from CARB, South Coast AQMD, SCE, and ports of LA and Long Beach, among others. 

However, not everyone had this head start and with about three thousand warehouses required to comply, consulting companies like TRC are helping warehouses create WAIRE plans. Rebecca Schenker, with the compliance department at TRC says there’s many options that fit each company. 

“They could install electric vehicle infrastructure, buy an electric yard hostler or put solar in. There are also things you can do offsite, like installing high capacity AC filters at local community centers that help reduce the emissions for the people who live and work there,” said Schenker. 

The impact to the community comes through the reduction in local air pollution but also through noise pollution, as electric fleets are very quite. 

For drivers such as Reyes Sanchez, the change has taken some adjustment but has also made his trips from Ontario to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach easier given the smoother, less noisy ride.