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WASHINGTON – Say goodbye to that puff of black smoke emitting from heavy trucks and construction equipment. In a few years the smelly soot will be gone with the wind.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its Clean Air Nonroad Diesel Rule this week – one of the most dramatic advancements in clean air protection since the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1990. EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt is officially scheduled to sign the rule on Tuesday.
The Nonroad Diesel Rule is part of a suite of related clean air rules that extend to diesel boats, buses, ships and locomotives. As a comprehensive national program aimed at reducing emissions from future nonroad diesel engines, such as those on farming and construction equipment, the rule will integrate engine and fuel controls as a system to gain the greatest emission reductions.
Exhaust emissions from these engines will decrease by more than 90 percent under the rule. Additionally, because the emission-control devices can be damaged by sulfur found in diesel fuel, the final rule also reduces the allowable level of sulfur in nonroad diesel fuel by more than 99 percent, which will result in immediate improvements in public health by reducing particulate matter from engines in the existing fleet of nonroad equipment.
As it stands, the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel used in construction, farming and other off-road activities can be found as high as 3,400 parts per million (ppm), according to government and industry estimates. Under the final rule, refiners will be required to cut sulfur in diesel to 500 ppm within the next three years and to just 15 ppm by 2012.
Organizations around the country applaud the new regulations and their positive impact on public health and safety. “The diesel industry is committed to being part of the clean air solution and this announcement signals the beginning of yet another chapter in the continuous improvement of these engines,” says Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum. “We look forward to ongoing collaboration with EPA and other stakeholders as we continue on the path to clean technology for the
nonroad sector.”
Also in terms of public health, the EPA has classified diesel exhaust as a carcinogen or cancer-causing agent and estimates that as many as 12,000 lives could be saved in the next 25 years through the reduction of exhaust emissions, not to mention preventing 1 million work days lost to related health problems. In addition, 6,000 children’s asthma-related emergency room visits and 280,000 cases of respiratory symptoms in children could be avoided each year.
“This rule will help protect seniors, children and people with lung diseases including asthma, who are the most vulnerable to the harm from air pollution,” said John Kirkwood, president and chief executive officer of the American Lung Association. “According to the American Lung Association State of the Air: 2004 report, more the 1 in 4 Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of particle pollution. Exposure to particle pollution leads to premature death. The clean up of nonroad diesel is necessary to protect public health.”
The EPA expects the program to increase diesel fuel costs by only 4 cents per gallon by 2030. More than 650,000 pieces of nonroad diesel equipment effected by the rule are sold in the United States each year.
The author is associate editor of Lawn & Landscape and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.