The Port of Houston has proposed a new container facility at Bayport that represents a major threat to the health and safety of the residents of southeast Harris County. The Bayport container port is poorly planned and poorly considered and has generated a level of opposition rarely seen in Harris County.

Bayport will have a major impact on residential areas that have been in existence for decades along Galveston Bay. There are approximately 4,000 residences within one mile of the proposed facility. According to Peter Brown, an expert land use analyst, approximately 700 homes in this “core area” will be effectively destroyed if Bayport is allowed to come into existence. Property damages in excess of $500 million are anticipated throughout the bay area as a result of Bayport.

According to the Port of Houston, over 7,000 trucks per day will be entering the Bayport container facility during peak usage, with the average being 5,500 trucks per day. These same trucks must leave the facility, leading to an average of 11,000 trucks per day and a peak of over 14,000 trucks per day. In Long Beach, CA, trucks result in major congestion on the freeways leading to and from the Port of Long Beach.

It is difficult for those of us opposing Bayport to understand why the Port of Houston has selected a site that is relatively inaccessible for a truck-oriented container port. Bayport has no freeway access. Instead, the only access is along State Highway 146 and Red Bluff Road. Bayport will cause road congestion and a loss of mobility for residents and users of the road system along Galveston Bay and throughout Clear Lake and into Pasadena, Deer Park, and Baytown. We believe that better sites exist that are better served by road and particularly by rail systems.

Air pollution from Bayport will be substantial. Based on calculations from an environmental impact statement prepared for the Port of Long Beach, between five and ten tons per day of nitrogen oxides (NOx) are expected from the many diesel sources that will exist at Bayport. Ships, tugs, trains, trucks, cranes, and tractors that will be present at Bayport all use diesel fuel and are unregulated as point sources of pollution.

Currently, our region is trying to develop a plan to achieve compliance with the federal health standard for ground-level ozone air pollution. Our region needs to reduce NOx emissions from the current level of approximately 1,052 tons per day to 289 tons per day from all sources. Our best efforts to date have led to plans that demonstrate reductions down to 407 tons per day. The off-road component of our emissions is disproportionately high and must be reduced further. Rather than aiding attainment, Bayport will worsen our air quality and make it more difficult to comply with the federal health standard for ozone.

The Bayport container port also will worsen levels of fine particle air pollution and increase hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions. According to City of Houston documentation, the Bayport area, as well as most of Harris County, currently exceeds the proposed health standard for fine particles. Direct emissions of fine particles from diesel engines will increase fine particle levels around and down wind from Bayport. Again, according to the City of Houston, fine particle pollution will increase the number of deaths from lung disorders and will increase cardiopulmonary problems.

Means and methods exist to develop new container port facilities in our region to achieve economic benefits. However, that port development must be planned carefully and it must respond to environmental and land use constraints. We should not allow a new development to destroy existing residential areas, to disrupt mobility on a regional scale, and to worsen public health by increasing air pollution. We deserve more from our leaders.

Jim Blackburn is an environmental attorney who teaches Environmental Law at Rice University and serves on the boards of both the CEC and the Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association.