California slaps companies with $130K in fines for diesel emissions violations

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) says that they have issued thousands of dollars worth of fines to eight companies who allegedly violated diesel emissions requirements after listening to complaints from the community.

On Thursday, CARB announced that multiple trucking companies and brokers had been fined a total of $130,750 for failure to comply with the Truck and Bus Regulation, which “requires heavy-duty diesel vehicles that operate in California to reduce toxic air contaminants emissions from their exhaust.”

The trucking companies and penalties are listed in the table below.

The fines come following a 2018 meeting during which CARB staff met with members of the Imperial Valley, who expressed concerns about the emissions caused by truck traffic.

Based on the comments from that meeting, CARB “targeted 35 facilities, from which staff initiated eight case investigations on brokers, in-state carriers, and persons hiring vehicles subject to the regulation.”

“Breathing particulates from diesel vehicle emissions is extremely harmful, causing respiratory illness, increased risk of heart disease and cancer, and premature death,” said Todd Sax, Enforcement Division Chief. “Companies must check that the fleets they hire are compliant with California’s rules. We will enforce against those who fail to do so in order to protect both the public health, and compliant fleet operators from unfair competition.”

CARB says that $20,375 of the more than $130,000 will go towards an air filtration system at Calexico schools.