The California Air Resources Board recently fined the City of Fresno $49,500 for diesel emissions violations at multiple fleet centers and entered into a settlement that will bring the city’s fleet of diesel vehicles into compliance with state regulations ahead of the mandated schedule. CARB also recently fined Los Angeles County waste hauler NASA Services $21,500 for emissions violations during 2007.
CARB says its investigators found that the City of Fresno had not been testing, measuring, recording and maintaining the records of its onroad vehicle fleet’s diesel smoke emissions. “The City of Fresno went through extraordinary steps to resolve these violations and work with us to craft an effective settlement that will provide cleaner air for its residents,” says CARB Chairman Mary D. Nichols. “This settlement not only remedies the violations but goes much further to reduce emissions from the city’s offroad fleet ahead of CARB’s regulatory timeline.”
Under the settlement, the city must:
In addition, the city is not allowed to apply for any funding from the Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program for early compliance with the offroad vehicle rule.
CARB says an investigation showed that NASA Services, based in Montebello, failed to comply with the solid waste collection vehicle rule by neglecting to install as many emissions-reduction devices as required by law. The law also requires owners of California-registered truck fleets to inspect their vehicles regularly to ensure that their engine emissions meet state air quality regulations; CARB says NASA Services met this requirement.
