June 16, 2023 — The Board of Port Commissioners has voted to increase annual funding for the Port of San Diego’s Maritime Industrial Impact Fund (MIIF). This fund has supported numerous efforts in communities adjacent to the Port’s maritime industry and terminals, such as youth programs, bicycle infrastructure, air quality improvements, noise reduction efforts, and more.
Established by the Board in 2010 as Board of Port Commissioners Policy 773, the MIIF was originally funded with $500,000. In 2017, the Board updated the policy to commit one-half of one percent (.5%) of the Port’s annual gross maritime industrial revenue to the program. At its meeting on Tuesday, June 13, the Board voted to increase the annual funding to 2% of the Port’s annual gross maritime industrial revenue. At that rate, it’s estimated that more than $4.8 million will be directed into the MIIF over the next six fiscal years.
“The Maritime Industrial Impact Fund is part of the Port’s overall strategy to support our communities,” said Chairman Rafael Castellanos, Port of San Diego Board of Port Commissioners. “We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars into electrification, we’re improving and building new parks, we reach more than a half a million kids each year through our various environmental education programs, and more. Now, we’re more than doubling our annual funding into the MIIF so we can do even more to improve our neighbors’ quality of life.”
Since 2017, the Port has directed more than $1.7 million from the MIIF to reduce and mitigate maritime-related impacts for those in Barrio Logan and West National City. Examples of MIIF-funded projects and programs to date include the installation of air filters at Perkins K-8 School in Barrio Logan; air filters for residents living adjacent to the industrial bayfront; support for the Monarch School Garden and Nutrition Program; contribution to the Bayshore Bikeway segment in National City; the Port’s Barrio Logan Nighttime Noise Study; and more.
Impacts covered under MIIF include diminished air quality; visual impacts; excessive noise; heavy movement of vehicles or equipment through adjacent residential or commercial areas; or disproportionate degradation or use of public infrastructure, such as roads, streets, or sidewalks. Port member cities and public entities may propose projects for MIIF consideration. Proposed projects must show a nexus between maritime operations on tidelands and off-tidelands impacts that a specific project is expected to mitigate.
The MIIF is one of many of the Port’s environmental justice initiatives to reduce maritime and industrial impacts in the Portside Communities. To date, the Port has spent more than $63 million on electrification and emissions reduction technologies, including shore power, an all-electric dual mobile harbor crane system, Port fleet electrification, a vessel air emissions capture and control system, clean trucks corridor deployment, and more. These and many other projects and initiatives are identified in the Port’s Maritime Clean Air Strategy.
