EPA fines 2 trucking companies for air pollution, requires them to pay for indoor air filtration at Southern California schools
Two interstate trucking companies failed to install filters in hundreds of diesel trucks that spewed tons of lung-damaging pollution into the air near schools, hospitals and daycare centers in Southern California, resulting in penalties of $225,000 assessed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, air pollution agencies announced Thursday.
In addition, the trucking companies will spend $575,000 to install indoor air filtration systems in classrooms and multi-purpose rooms at schools and daycare centers in Los Angeles and Rialto, according to a settlement reached with the EPA.
The Green Bay, WI-based Schneider National, Inc. operated 150 large diesel trucks in California from 2013-2016 without diesel particulate filters.
Also, the company did not verify that 1,200 of the carriers it hired complied with the California Truck and Bus Rule, enforced by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), according to the EPA.
Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc., based in Thomasville, N.C., operated 117 diesel trucks without filters during the same time period and failed to verify 64 of its carriers with the rule.
Old Dominion’s portion of the penalties and settlement monies will be used to install filtration equipment at schools in the Rialto area, the EPA said.
Filters needed
Functioning big-rig truck tailpipe filters, in addition to a cadre of indoor air purifiers at schools, will cut the amount of pollutants by 90 percent, according to air quality officials.
Filters on trucks help prevent fine particulates smaller than 2.5 microns and ultra fine particulates 0.1 microns in size from entering the air.
When breathed, particulates bypass the body’s natural defense systems and lodge in a child’s lungs, causing asthma and degraded lung development that can lead to lung diseases later in life.
Also, particulates cause cardiovascular disease and even premature death in older adults, according to the EPA and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
“Heavy-duty trucks can emit drastically higher levels of pollution when not equipped with required emissions controls,” said Mike Stoker, EPA Pacific Southwest regional administrator during a press conference at Eastman Avenue Elementary School in East Los Angeles Thursday.
Diesel-powered vehicles account for half of the nitrogen oxides — a major component of local smog — and two-thirds of all the particulate emissions from transportation sources in the United States, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Eastman Avenue school will receive air filtration devices and indoor sensors made by IQAir, a Swiss-based company based in La Mirada, in all its classrooms, multipurpose rooms and cafeteria, as will the Eastman Avenue Early Education Center across the street.
The facilities are one block from the 710 and 5 freeways and just yards from trucking facilities. Studies show these devices increase student productivity, performance and attendance.
“It is the first time we are getting these,” said Teresa Armas, school principal.
The school population — about 800 — has a much higher percentage of children with asthma than the general population, she said.
The SCAQMD has installed air filtration devices in 78 schools within the four-county air district, said Wayne Nastri, executive officer. Earlier this year, the district upgraded 10-year-old equipment at Resurrection Elementary School in nearby Boyle Heights.
“With kids in the classrooms, it is a much healthier environment,” Nastri said during an interview Thursday.
Nastri said the SCAQMD is following the rules of Assembly Bill 617, signed into law in August 2017, which requires the agency to address localized “hot spots” such as freeways, rail yards and factories that emit pollutants near places with a high degree of exposure, such as schools and daycare centers.
“You will be seeing a lot more of these kinds of localized efforts,” he said.
On Friday, the SCAQMD board will consider creating an $87 million demonstration program for battery-electric, heavy-duty trucks with Volvo, said Sam Atwood, spokesman.
The program would require the company to deploy 23 electric trucks, cleaner off-loading equipment and a solar charging component at a future truck facility in Southern California.