Curbing the pollution

Art Nadler

Tuesday, May 4, 1999 | 10:30 a.m.

You're tooling down the road when a semitrailer roars past, leaving you choking on a thick cloud of black smoke.

Cloaked in pungent pollution, you mutter that something needs to be done about diesel trucks that foul the desert air.

Well, the smoke may be about to clear.

Senate Bill 432 is attempting to give the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety some teeth in Clark County in its fight to reduce diesel emissions. The legislation, which was power-shifted into the Senate Finance Committee, would allocate $100,000 to the department for tracking and ticketing heavy polluters.

The money would be used to purchase two police-style vehicles equipped with diesel emissions testing devices.

According to the Air Pollution Division of the Clark County Health District, diesel engines are a major source of particle pollution in the air. The particles are unburned fuel from trucks' engines and appear as black smoke from exhausts.

The particles are primary indicators of whether air quality is healthy in the Las Vegas Valley, health district director Michael Naylor said.

In March the health district reported that diesel-powered on-road and off-road vehicles contributed 55.5 percent of the 3,226 tons of particles detected in the air for the year. Other sources are fireplaces, lawn and garden equipment, aircraft jet fuel and gasoline-powered vehicles.

Jim Parsons, DMV emissions program manager, said inspectors will stop diesel vehicles -- including semitrailers, buses and garbage trucks -- that appear to be emitting too much smoke. Special meters will be used to measure the amount of particle matter coming from the exhausts.

An $800 citation will be issued if a vehicle fails, but the fine can be lifted if the vehicle is repaired and passes a second test, Parsons said.

A second offense will carry a $1,500 fine, the third a $2,500 fine and on a fourth stop, the vehicle will be ordered off the road.

The department has been surveying the diesel pollution problem in the county for five years and started fining violators this year, said Greg Cole, supervising Clark County emissions control officer.

Fines have been issued only when the Nevada Highway Patrol set up road safety checks on interstates and DMV inspectors tagged along.

Surface streets haven't been policed for polluters.

The bill would fund inspections on all roadways in the county. If it passes, Parsons said, inspections could begin by the end of the year or early in 2000.

"Most of the trucks that fail have been tampered with or not maintained," Parsons said. Violators frequently modify the engines to get more power, which results in more air pollution, he said.

But there may be a glitch in the proposed inspection program that nobody -- except people in the trucking industry -- thought about. It's a manufacturer's mechanical problem.

Daniel Pike, equipment superintendent for Wells Cargo general contractors of Las Vegas, said diesel engines from the 1960s through the 1980s have mechanical fuel systems that can't be brought into current pollution compliance. New diesel engines have computers running their fuel systems, he said, and they don't pollute.

"Some of these older engines weren't designed for the test," Pike said. "These older trucks make up 35 (percent) to 45 percent of the fleets in Las Vegas."

Chuck Richardson, territory manager for Cummins Intermountain, a major diesel engine producer, agrees. He said computer-run diesels don't pollute, but many of the older vehicles are still being used for short hauls. Their life expectancy is 300,000 miles, he said, and with an engine overhaul, the trucks could easily be on the road for 500,000 miles.

"These older trucks could be around for a very long time," Richardson said. "I think the only thing that will get them off the road is if the price of diesel fuel goes up a lot. Then companies will have to go for the more fuel-efficient engines."

Alan Gaddy, vice president of Republic Silver State Disposal Service, said his company is slowly replacing its older garbage trucks. Out of the company's fleet of 280 trucks, it has already replaced 70 vehicles.

"We take old equipment out of service," Gaddy said. "We do all the normal improvements that are required."

Besides particle pollution, Naylor said diesel engines also account for 40 percent of the brown haze around the valley.

The Senate bill also allocates $400,000 to create a committee to study air quality control programs in Clark County. The committee will hire a consultant to study air quality issues and review the findings by Oct. 15, 2000.

The results and recommendations will be submitted to county commissioners, Gov. Kenny Guinn and the Legislative Counsel Bureau for the next Legislature.