Shipping Containers That Spent Weeks Aboard Ships Stuck At Ports Now Being Dumped In Nearby Neighborhoods

WILMINGTON (CBSLA) — With the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach now running 24/7 operations, a new problem has occurred. Many of the shipping containers that spent weeks onboard ships waiting to be unloaded are now being dumped in nearby neighborhoods once they're emptied.

Sonia Cervantes lives along Anaheim Street in Wilmington, California, where UCTI Trucking Company is located.

The company's lot only has a capacity for 65 containers so the additional containers now line up along Anaheim Street in front of some people's homes.

"It's a bunch of neighbors that are very upset because it's a non-stop situation," said Cervantes.

"I would have to go in at 6:30 a.m. to go to work. There was a trailer already blocking my driveway so I couldn't get out. With no driver in the trailer, so we would honk and honk, and it was just crazy."

"Right now with the ports and everything that's going on over there, we're stuck with the containers, having to bring them all to the yard, and we only have so much space," said UCTI Trucking owner Frank Arrieran.

"They're sitting in the street for like 15, 20 minutes," Cervantes said. "Sometimes they just unload the trailer in the street with no front part of it, and they just leave it there."

CBSLA spoke with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Monday who says the Biden Administration is working on both short and long-term solutions.

Last week, President Joe Biden announced that the Port of LA would implement 24/7 operations.

"There are so many pieces to the supply chain and most of them are in private hands. But what we found is that the administration can act as an honest broker and that's what we're doing, getting the different players together and securing commitments that are going to make a difference to get these goods flowing," Buttigieg said.

"There are $17 billion in port improvements in the President's infrastructure bill and they're urgently needed. This is one of the reasons why we're eager to see congressional action, and I know my department is ready to put those dollars to work," Buttigieg said.

In the meantime, back in Wilmington, Arrerian said they're doing everything they can to ease the congestion on the street. He's asking residents for understanding.

"We've been messed with tickets and being harassed," Arrerian said. "We ask the community to help us, because we're only in the middle."

Arrieran said he's meeting with city officials tomorrow. He hopes they will work with him to get relocated to a bigger yard.