Supervisors oppose new diesel law
A new rule package that will force owners of diesel engines to upgrade their motors to improve California air quality has excited the ire of the county supervisors.
Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved sending a letter to the California Air Resources Board to say they oppose the state's In-Use On-Road Diesel Vehicle regulation.
The regulation would affect trucks, buses and other vehicles operating in California. It would require older vehicles and equipment be replaced, or retrofitted with a new, cleaner-burning engine, or particulate trapping devices, beginning January 1, 2011. The cost of the particulate-trapping devices alone could be very expensive in some cases.
Mendocino County Air Quality Management District Manager Chris Brown said particulate traps run about $20,000. But according to well-known Mendocino Coast logger Jerry Philbrick, retrofitting his 1989 Peterbuilt truck would cost about $70,000.
Supervisor John Pinches argued approval of the law would have a devastating effect on the county's economy.
"It's a massive impact on everybody who has heavy equipment," Pinches said. "The county would have to buy all new equipment at a cost of about $20 million. That would basically put us out of the road maintenance business. It would put everyone every logger, every trucker out of business. I mean, diesel engines are what runs this county."
County staff already had written a letter suggesting the county wanted to delay implementation of the rule
package. But Pinches insisted a delay wasn't good enough and the county should make its opposition to rule clear.
Supervisor David Colfax rewrote the letter, keeping most of it, but changing the final paragraph or two to say the board opposed implementation of the rule package until the economic impacts to rural counties had been addressed and mitigated. The board approved the rewritten letter, 5-0.
Brown said the California Air Resources Board identified particulate matter included in diesel exhaust as a toxin in 1998. In that same year, the ARB developed a "to-do" list on how to improve California air quality, and has been slowly checking off the tasks on that list. Passing the In-Use On-Road Diesel Vehicle regulations is one of the last and biggest pieces, of the CARB remediation plans, according to Brown.
The Air Resources Board will consider the In-Use On-Road Diesel Rules on December 11 and 12 at Cal EPA headquarters in Sacramento.
For more information on the rule package, call 1-866 6DIESEL or visit www.arb.ca.gov/dieseltruck.
