July 8th 2010
The day started off really gloomy and the clouds looked like they were ready to pour its overflow on us… Maybe because it knew that we were going to the Port of Oakland. When we arrived to the Port the wind began picking up and it was extremely chilly, but we as a group were determined to find out everything we could on the Port of Oakland.
We boarded our bus and headed to West Oakland! We stopped to pick up our tour guide Phil Granger who is a wharfinger for the Port of Oakland. He spoke a little about his job as we headed to Harbor Park. He gave us a tour from a tower and used a lot of fancy words to describe these tools that are helping the Port to function. Now call me crazy but it seemed to me that every time we asked an environmental question he either avoided it, or said he didn’t know.
We were able to see a live ship being unloaded and witness how much equipment and human energy it takes to unload those thousands of pounds of containers in a timely manner. He explained that the ship had probably just come from somewhere in Asia and would be heading down to Southern California once the unloading was complete, which could take days! He gave us startling facts as to how many containers go through the Port at any given time it was something like 244,000 TEU’s (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) in 2009. Now that may not sound like a lot for a year but just imagine all the diesel trucks and trains that have to transport them and the fact that these same trucks and trains have to go through the West Oakland community and polluting there air.
Two outgoing guys gave us a tour of the BNSF Railyard and we got behind the scenes access to railyard operations and knowledge!
Devilla Ervin
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