Data from four air-quality monitoring stations in and around the Port of Los Angeles show concentrations of elemental carbon, a pollutant targeted in the port’s clean-air efforts, declined for the fourth straight year in 2010.
Elemental carbon, an air contaminant, is an indicator of diesel particulate matter, which is the soot produced by the combustion of diesel fuel. Elemental carbon was down by 50 percent in 2010 compared to 2006 in the nearby port community of Wilmington.