The Port of Long Beach has cleared the way for SA Recycling LLC to demolish its 19-acre marine terminal on Pier T, releasing a Draft Initial Study that concludes the project would not cause significant or unmitigable environmental impacts.

The draft evaluates SA Recycling's plan to vacate the facility at 482 Pier T Avenue and restore the site to its pre-lease condition as required under the company's lease. The Draft Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration found that potential impacts to biological, cultural, and tribal cultural resources would be mitigated to less-than-significant levels, with no other significant impact categories flagged.

What happens to the Pier T site?

Under port lease terms, SA Recycling must return the 19-acre marine terminal to pre-lease condition as part of vacating the facility. The move frees Pier T acreage for the port's longer-term redevelopment roadmap, though a reuse plan has not been disclosed.

Where does Duncan and Son Lines fit?

The port paired the demolition release with a renewed focus on its partnership with Duncan and Son Lines, a fourth-generation family trucking and logistics operation it frames as a model for hitting its twin goals of doubled cargo volumes and zero-emission operations under the 2050 Vision plan.

For two years, Duncan and Son has operated the ramp at Union Pacific Railroad's Phoenix Intermodal Terminal, transferring containers between railcars and trucks on the San Pedro Bay-to-Arizona corridor. The carrier moves Arizona-bound reefers and dry boxes off the marine terminals and onto UP rail, giving importers an intermodal alternative to all-highway drayage.

Parent company DSL Logistics plans to put roughly 10% of its 1,000-truck fleet into zero-emission service by the end of 2026, pairing the truck investments with on-site charging infrastructure.

What are operators saying about the modal shift?

Keith Jones, Vice President of Sales for DSL Logistics, described a significant and ongoing shift of Arizona-bound cargo from truck to rail as shippers weigh efficiency and environmental benefits of intermodal operations. The shift carries direct commercial consequences for the drayage segment serving San Pedro Bay, where lost highway moves translate to fewer chassis turns, fewer driver hours, and lower fuel-margin revenue for over-the-road carriers.

How big is the zero-emission drayage fleet at Long Beach?

July 2026 call data show 613 zero-emissions trucks served the Port of Long Beach, accounting for nearly 3.6% of the 16,853 drayage trucks holding terminal access. Battery-electric models made up 510 of those calls; hydrogen fuel-cell units totaled 103.

The split matters commercially because hydrogen-powered Class 8 trucks have run into headwinds. Manufacturer bankruptcies and unreliable fuel availability have thinned the segment, leaving 19 of the 20 tractor models currently eligible for California state vouchers as battery-electric.

Is the charging network keeping up?

The port now reports more than 200 charging units open or under construction within Long Beach, with many upgraded to megawatt-class chargers to lift per-truck throughput. Megawatt hardware compresses charger dwell and lifts daily lift cycles, a critical variable for high-utilization drayage routes where every minute on a pedestal is a minute not earning a move.

How have emissions and throughput moved in tandem?

The Harbor Commission framed its recent milestones against the approaching 20th anniversary of the Clean Air Action Plan. Container volume has risen 44% since 2005, while diesel particulate matter from port-related sources has dropped 90%, nitrogen oxides 68%, and sulfur oxides 98%.

Harbor Commission President Steven Neal and CEO Dr. Noel Hacegaba both pointed to those figures as evidence that trade growth and emissions reductions have moved in tandem at the San Pedro Bay complex, with neither metric requiring the other to give way.

Forward-looking: With 10% of the Duncan and Son fleet scheduled to be zero-emission by year-end 2026 and megawatt chargers rolling out across Long Beach, shippers and drayage operators should expect cleaner but shorter-range drayage cycles to keep pulling container volume onto rail corridors such as Phoenix, where intermodal economics already compete head-to-head with over-the-road moves into Arizona.