Truck fleet, EPA settle diesel case
Estes Express Lines is fined $100,000 as part of the first federal enforcement of state’s tough emissions rules.
A Virginia-based trucking firm will pay a $100,000 fine and spend $290,000 on pollution-reduction programs for operating 73 vehicles in California without diesel particulate filters, federal and state officials announced Thursday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s settlement with Estes Express Lines was the first federal enforcement action against a company for violating California’s tough regulations to slash emissions of toxic soot and smog-forming pollutants from diesel trucks.
Todd Sax, chief of enforcement for the state Air Resources Board, said the case “sends a strong message that trucking companies, even those based outside of California, must meet California’s requirements when operating here.”
State officials in 2008 adopted the nation’s toughest regulations on heavyduty diesel trucks, requiring them either to meet 2010 engine standards or upgrade their vehicles with filters to capture diesel particulate matter.
The rules, being phased in through 2023, aim to reduce harmful emissions from diesel trucks, one of the largest sources of smogforming nitrogen oxides and cancer-causing soot.
The rules apply to all 1 million diesel trucks operating in California, including 625,000 that are registered out of state.
The EPA approved the state’s heavy-duty diesel regulations in 2012, giving the agency the authority to enforce them under the federal Clean Air Act.
In the spring of 2014, the agency sent letters to Estes and about a dozen other large, interstate trucking companies requesting information on their compliance with California’s diesel emissions rules, said Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA’s regional administrator.
In response, Estes disclosed that about 15% of its 500-truck California fleet was not equipped with particulate filters and that it had failed to verify whether the trucks of subcontractors it had hired were in compliance.
The EPA cited Estes for those violations in February. As part of its settlement with federal officials, Estes agreed to pay $255,000 to help replace old wood-burning fireplaces and stoves with cleaner devices in homes in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the state’s most polluted regions.
The company also will spend $35,000 to fund a UC Davis-run program to teach out-of-state trucking firms about California’s diesel regulations.
“We think that’s an appropriate use of the penalty, and we look forward to a compliant future within California,” said Nick Scola, a spokesman for Estes.
The company agrees with the EPA’s findings, he said, and is “working diligently” to meet regulators’ requirements.
State air-quality officials estimated last year that about 85% of the trucks were complying with the regulations.
California regulators have tried to enforce the rules in recent years by inspecting trucks on the road and fining violators. In May, the Air Resources Board fined Bakersfield-based Randy’s Trucking Inc. $524,675, the largest penalty to date, for failing to clean up its fleet in accordance with the regulations.