1:00pm | The Port of Long Beach has extended the period to nearly three months for public review on a draft environmental study on the proposed $650 million shipping facility on Terminal Island.
The port will now accept written comments until Dec. 2.
The extension provides additional time for groups, individuals and agencies to submit comments on the document, said Port spokesman Art Wong.
Some of those asking for more time to review documents were government regulatory agencies, Wong said.
The original deadline was Nov. 15. The port released the draft environmental impact statement and supplemental environmental impact report on Sept. 16, analyzing the impacts of the proposed development, and the mitigation measures that would be used to address those impacts.
Wong said it’s not too hard to understand why it’s taking so much time to review the documents, which are several hundred pages in length. “There’re so many requirements that we have to meet in producing these documents,” he added.
Pier S would be built on a vacant 160-acre parcel. The new facility would generate and sustain up to 40,000 new permanent jobs in the region, as well as thousands of temporary construction jobs, according to the port.
With its twin port in Los Angeles, the port is now considered the sixth busiest in the world, Wong said, noting that growth at other ports and the expansion of capacity at the Panama Canal may slice away at the port’s share of the shipping market.
“With Pier S, what we’re talking about here is the potential to maintain our marketshare,” Wong said. “It was only a couple of years ago when trade was booming, and the port was being congested and cargo was being diverted to other ports.”
There are six container terminals at the port, and Pier S would be the seventh. When built out and at its potential, Pier S would be able to handle nearly 2 million containers per year. The entire port complex now handles roughly 6 million containers per year.
Pier S, if approved, won’t likely be adding to the port’s capacity anytime soon, particularly if there are further delays in its approval, Wong said.
“At this rate, it’ll be sometime next year before the final EIR is released,” Wong said. Following that study, and a green-lighting of the project, the port would then lease Pier S to an operating company, and construction wouldn’t likely start for another year after that. Construction would take two, or three years, Wong said, adding, “you’re talking 2015 or 2016 when it might open.”
For more information on the project, including electronic versions of the environmental reports, visit www.polb.com/Pier_S.
Environmental documents are available for review at: Port of Long Beach Administration Building, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach Public Main Library, 101 Pacific Ave., Long Beach City Clerk, 333 W. Ocean Blvd., San Pedro Regional Branch Library, 931 Gaffey St., Wilmington Branch Library, 1300 N. Avalon Blvd.
Written comments can be submitted to Richard D. Cameron, Director of Environmental Planning, 925 Harbor Plaza, Long Beach, 90802; or [email protected].