SACRAMENTO — California's diesel-powered bulldozers, scrapers and other heavy construction equipment must be retrofitted or replaced over the next 13 years to reduce the air pollution that sickens tens of thousands of residents every year, state regulators decided Thursday.
Under tough new rules adopted by the Air Resources Board, California is the first state to make construction companies fix existing diesel-powered machines. Heavy equipment can last 30 years or more, so without the new mandate, it would take decades for fleets to upgrade to cleaner equipment.
Although the fumes are most often associated with big trucks and buses, 20% of California's diesel pollution comes from the construction industry. Building, mining and airport vehicles are responsible for an estimated 1,100 premature deaths statewide every year and more than 1,000 hospitalizations for heart and lung disease, along with tens of thousands of asthma attacks, scientists say.
The air board's new rules will slash diesel soot -- also known as particulate matter -- from construction equipment by 92% over 2000 levels. Smog-forming nitrogen oxides will be cut by more than a third. And greenhouse gases, a byproduct of fuel burning, also will drop as a result of a ban on idling equipment.
"This is a very progressive rule with a lot of flexibility," said board Chairwoman Mary Nichols. "Beginning in 2010, we will be breathing far less of the smog and fine particulates that are so damaging to our health."
The building industry hotly contested the rule, saying it would cause job losses, increase highway construction costs and damage the state's economy. Michael Lewis, a lobbyist for the industry-led Coalition to Build a Cleaner California, said industry could not afford the retrofits. "And a regulation that is not achievable will not save one life," he said.
The new regulation signaled a comeback for the powerful board, whose reputation was damaged in the wake of the recent firing of its former chairman, Robert Sawyer, by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and allegations that the governor's staff had tried to weaken proposed pollution standards.
Nichols, an environmental lawyer appointed by Schwarzenegger to replace Sawyer, took an aggressive stance during Thursday's daylong board meeting, opposing an industry proposal to delay enforcement.
The diesel rule, the result of three years of debate, drew applause from environmental groups.
