Air Board: No More Dirty Diesel Construction Equipment

The California Air Board is back to making regulations, a welcome sign after quite a bit of controversy. They ruled yesterday that construction equipment that belches pollution be replaced with ones that emit less emissions. This ruling has been eagerly awaited for three years. LAT:

California's diesel-powered bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy construction equipment must be retrofitted or replaced over the next 13 years to reduce the air pollution that sickens tens of thousands of residents every year, state regulators decided Thursday.

Under tough new rules adopted by the Air Resources Board, California is the first state to make construction companies fix existing diesel-powered machines. Heavy equipment can last 30 years or more, so without the new mandate, it would take decades for fleets to upgrade to cleaner equipment.

Although the fumes are most often associated with big trucks and buses, 20% of California's diesel pollution comes from the construction industry. Building, mining and airport vehicles are responsible for an estimated 1,100 premature deaths statewide every year and more than 1,000 hospitalizations for heart and lung disease, along with tens of thousands of asthma attacks, scientists say.

This ruling gives the company enough time to become compliant, and by 2010 we should be breathing in cleaner air. The CARB also passed a provision that lets particularly polluted regions like Los Angeles and the Central Valley to "accelerate the diesel equipment schedule in their districts". The board has also moved to clean up garbage trucks, ships and buses. Heavy duty trucks are next on the docket.

"It's a good day for clean air," said Barry Wallerstein, executive officer of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Wallerstein said the region must achieve twice the amount of construction pollution cuts as the overall state goal in order to meet federal standards. The region, one of the dirtiest in the country, is under a strict mandate to improve its air by 2015. The AQMD will offer construction companies $120 million in incentives to purchase particulate filters or buy new machines.