Photos by Brian Addison.
Tracy Egoscue officially became a Harbor Commissioner for the Port of Long Beach yesterday after the the City Council unanimously approved her appointment by Mayor Robert Garcia.
After holding a press conference last week to announce his recommendation of Egoscue, Garcia noted that “industry leaders and environmental advocates alike have already been expressing their full support.” Egoscue will take on her role immediately.
“Tracy is an accomplished and dedicated community leader, and I am extremely confident in her commitment to the Port and the City,” Garcia said in a statement. “Her record of environmental stewardship, and her knowledge of business and industry make her the perfect candidate to continue the Port and City on the path of collaboration, sustainability, and prosperity.”
Mayor Garcia Announces Environmental Lawyer Tracy Egoscue as First Harbor Commission Appointment
September 2, 2:30PM | In his first commission appointment as mayor, Mayor Robert Garcia has named environmental lawyer and former California Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Tracy Egoscue to fill the vacant seat.
Emphasizing the Port of Long Beach’s green initiatives, Garcia introduced Egoscue today at City Hall.
“We are committing ourselves to ensuring that Long Beach become and remain the cleanest seaport in the world,” Garcia said. “Next year will mark the tenth anniversary of the Green Port policy, so as we lead up to that, we are recommitting ourselves today that we will [live up to that policy].”
Currently serving on the Board of the California League of Conservation Voters, Egoscue has lived in Long Beach’s 7th District for over a decade. She founded and runs Egoscue Law Group out of Bixby Knolls, handling cases that revolve around environmental litigation and topics such as water quality and rights, remediation, and wetland development and mitigation.
Egoscue is most well-known in her field for achieving one of the largest Clean Water Act settlements, scoring $5M against the City of Los Angeles in 2004. Launching the suit in 1998, Egoscue’s environmental group—the Santa Monica Baykeeper—demanded that the City accept responsibility for 3,670 spills that occurred between 1988 and 1998. The result was a settlement which required that Los Angeles replace 488 miles of sewer lines, clean 2,800 miles of sewers every year, and increase the capacity of the system as a whole.
Additionally, Egoscue scored a $2.5M settlement against the County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County in 2006. Between January 2001 and September 2006, 93 overflows from the Sanitation Districts’ wastewater collection system occurred throughout LA County. Though one-third of the overflows did not reach a receiving body (e.g. a river or ocean), the rest did. While 20 overflows totaling less than 1,000 gallons reached a receiving body, there were 39 overflows which reached a receiving water body that totaled a staggering 3,326,700 gallons.
“Most important to me is that she loves Long Beach,” Garcia said. “She will do whatever she can to ensure the City will continue to grow and prosper.”
The mayor’s appointment will face a vote at City Council, expected to be completed later this month.
Editor’s note: this article was updated at 11AM with additional quotes from today’s press conference.