AAPA Names Environmental Award Winners

On September 19, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) named the ports of Seattle, Houston, Canaveral, and Greater Lafourche winners in its 1995 Environmental Improvement Awards competition.

The highest honor, the Calvin Hurst Award for Outstanding Achievement, was awarded to the Port of Seattle for its Southwest Harbor Cleanup and Redevelopment Project, site of the planned American President Lines (APL) container terminal and intermodal yard. The Port of Houston Authority won a community/public involvement award for its Beneficial Users Group, formed to determine the best possible uses for disposal of large volumes of dredged material generated from its proposed harbor deepening project. Canaveral Port Authority also received a community/ public involvement award for a program involving distribution of sea oats and beach grass to community residents.

The Greater Lafourche Port Commission, located in Galliano, La., won an Environmental Enhancement Award for its efforts to beautify Bayou Lafourche. For more than two decades, the Port Commission has conducted various cleanup programs including removal of over 100 derelict vessels from the waterway, removal of countless pilings and wharves, public awareness and involvement campaigns, weekly bayou patrols and cleanups, as well as embankment beautification and enforcement of ordinances.

A ceremony was scheduled for October 18, at the Sheraton New Orleans, at which Joseph J.

Birgeles, chairman of AAPA's Harbors, Navigation and Environment Committee, and manager, External Affairs, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, was to present the Environmental Improvement Awards to the honorable recipients. The AAPA represents virtually every U.S. public port agency, as well as major port agencies in Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.