What Port Pollution Costs Your Community¶
39 million Americans live within three miles of a port. Most have no idea what they're breathing — or what it costs them.
26 U.S. port communities assessed — 19 priority ports + 7 Great Lakes screening profiles
9M+ below-median-income residents across port impact zones
36,000 premature deaths globally from shipping PM2.5 each year
1 state with mandatory at-berth emissions controls (California)
Sources: ICCT Global Health Impacts of Transport Emissions; ICCT Port Emissions Screening (2024); CARB At-Berth Regulation; U.S. Census ACS; Port Health Watch analysis.
The Problem¶
Ships at berth burn diesel fuel to run auxiliary engines for power, refrigeration, and cargo handling. These engines emit fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx) directly into surrounding neighborhoods — often low-income communities of color that already face disproportionate environmental burdens.
In California, the Air Resources Board requires ships to either plug into shore power or use approved emission capture technology while docked. Nowhere else in the United States has an equivalent requirement. The result: 17 of America's 19 highest-priority ports — plus all 7 Great Lakes screening ports — have no mandated protection from at-berth vessel emissions. 24 of the 26 U.S. port communities on this site operate outside any state at-berth regulatory framework.
Technology to eliminate these emissions exists today and is commercially deployed. In October 2023, EPA authorized California's regulation under the Clean Air Act — legally enabling any state to adopt it. No state has done so. The regulatory mandate and financial frameworks to deploy the technology at scale outside California do not — yet.
What We Do¶
Port Health Watch quantifies the health costs of port pollution using peer-reviewed methodology and primary-source data. We produce site-specific health impact assessments that translate emissions data into the numbers communities, policymakers, and port authorities need to drive action: premature deaths avoided, hospitalizations prevented, healthcare dollars saved.
Our portfolio spans all 19 priority U.S. ports plus 7 Great Lakes screening profiles — from the CARB-regulated benchmarks at Los Angeles/Long Beach and Oakland, through the 17 unregulated priority ports on the Atlantic Coast, Gulf Coast, Pacific Northwest, and Great Lakes, to the broader Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway system (Two Harbors, Silver Bay, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toledo, Indiana-Burns Harbor). Coverage extends across the three regulatory regimes (California's full CARB framework, New Jersey's 2020 Environmental Justice Law, and the states with no state-level controls), the three distinct cargo profiles (container-dominant, tanker/petroleum-dominant, and bulk/cruise-dominant), and the full range of community scales from small-metro concentrated exposure (Duluth-Superior, Brunswick, Silver Bay) to multi-million-resident metropolitan burden (NY/NJ, Houston, LA/Long Beach).
For Community Organizations¶
Quantified health impact data for your port community — designed for regulatory advocacy, grant applications, and legislative testimony. Learn more →
For Policymakers & Port Authorities¶
Cost-benefit analysis of at-berth emissions controls, regulatory pathway mapping, and environmental justice assessments. Learn more →
Featured Research — Demonstration Assessments¶
Our two fully-public site assessments demonstrate the complete analytical depth available for every port on this site. The other 17 priority ports and 7 Great Lakes screening ports have profiles covering overview, regulatory landscape, and emissions context — with the full analytical treatment (CDC PLACES census-tract health quantification, monetized damages, environmental justice scoring, FOIA-enhanced regulatory context) available through a research engagement.
Port of New York & New Jersey: Full Health Impact Assessment →¶
The largest port complex on the U.S. East Coast and the third-busiest in the nation, with approximately 2,600 tonnes of criteria pollutants emitted at berth annually and 3.2 million below-median-income residents across four counties in two states. Our analysis estimates over $150 million per year in monetizable public health damages — and models what at-berth emissions capture would deliver for Brooklyn, Newark, Elizabeth, and Bayonne. Distinctive dimensions covered: cross-state regulatory complexity (NJ DEP + NY DEC), the NJ Environmental Justice Law (2020), and the ICCT 2023 electrification study finding that full electrification would shrink the port's emissions footprint by 81% — from 292 km² to 55 km².
Duluth-Superior: Full Health Impact Assessment →¶
The largest Great Lakes port, where bulk commodity loading means extended berth times and concentrated emissions in a compact metro area of ~115,000 residents — producing elevated per-capita exposure despite the modest absolute emissions volume. The MERC Coal Terminal closure (June 30, 2026) creates the cleanest natural experiment in Great Lakes port emissions available this decade. Distinctive dimensions covered: the 97/3 Scope 3 vessel-emissions insight, St. Louis River Area of Concern (80+ management actions), MN/WI bi-state regulatory complexity, and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa tribal coordination. A proof-of-concept for at-berth emissions control across the full Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Seaway system.
Coverage Snapshot¶
CARB-regulated benchmarks (2): Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland — the national benchmarks for at-berth regulation.
Priority 1 — highest impact (2): NY/NJ, Virginia (Norfolk/Hampton Roads).
Priority 2 — high impact (10): Houston/Galveston, New Orleans, Corpus Christi, Charleston, Seattle/Tacoma, Beaumont, Savannah, Mobile, Baltimore, Miami/PortMiami.
Priority 3 — screening (5): Port Everglades, Philadelphia/Camden, Jacksonville, Brunswick, Duluth-Superior.
Great Lakes screening (7): Two Harbors, Silver Bay, Green Bay, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Toledo, Indiana-Burns Harbor.
See the priority ports page for the full list, the interactive map for a geographic view, or the comparison table for side-by-side data.
Data Sources
All analysis on this site is drawn from publicly available primary sources including the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Air Resources Board, U.S. Census Bureau, CDC PLACES, NOAA, and EPA EJScreen. See our Methodology for complete sourcing and analytical framework.
About This Project
Port Health Watch is operated by EcoAsset Lab LLC, a Wisconsin-registered company developing environmental market frameworks, and is a sister initiative to Civil Ledger Lab. We are developing two methodology frameworks that don't yet exist: the Air Quality Health Unit (AQHU) for Verra's SD VISta program, and a maritime at-berth carbon capture methodology for Verra VCS. The MERC coal terminal closure on June 30, 2026 provides the first natural experiment for empirical validation. Learn more →