May 25^th- California Air Resources Board will hold hearing- Need your support

On Friday, May 25, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will hold a hearing that could result in the adoption of the toughest regulations in the country for off-road diesel vehicles used by the construction industry.

The AGC San Diego Board of Directors accepted a number of recommendations form AGC’s Task Force that is dealing with this regulation.  A number of the recommendations will be used by the AGC and the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition to help seek a regulation that is workable for the construction industry and for CARB.

AGC members can help. We need a strong turnout at the CARB hearing which will be held beginning at 8:00 AM on Friday, May 25, at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar Hotel, 11966 El Camino Real. Please refer to the attached form. 

Remember, this regulation will affect nearly every firm in the industry, including those firms exclusively involved in General Building construction.

The following article written by Dave Downey of the North County Times gives a very good perspective of the situation.

State decision looms on diesel rules
By: DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY -- California's construction industry and environmental groups are gearing up for a key hearing later this month in San Diego that could deliver the nation's toughest air pollution rules for diesel-powered bulldozers, forklifts and commercial mowers.

In an aggressive move to clear the state's smoggy skies, the California Air Resources Board is targeting California's 180,000 off-road diesel vehicles for retrofit or replacement. The measures aim to curb up to 85 percent of the vehicles' soot and smog-causing emissions by 2020.

Air quality officials say the time has come for tighter regulations for on- and off-road diesel vehicles, which they say contribute to air pollution.

But the construction industry says the new regulations would cripple contractors and put some builders out of work, a sentiment that sets the stage for a probable showdown over the landmark proposal. The board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the sweeping rules and to consider adopting them May 25 at the San Diego Marriott Del Mar Hotel, 11966 El Camino Real.

"This is a very big deal," said Debra Kelley, Southern California regional director of advocacy for the American Lung Association in San Diego, in a telephone interview Thursday. "It's a groundbreaking regulation. And now we have the bulldozers lined up to fight that groundbreaking regulation."

A few days ago, an industry group called the Construction Industry Air Quality Coalition put out a report calling on the state to put off the compliance deadline by five years. The organization wants to phase in the rules during 18 years instead of 13, and move the deadline back to 2025.

If a delay isn't granted, the results could be disastrous for California's economy, the group said.

Ralph Potter of CIT Equipment Finance in Coronado underscored that point in a recent San Diego Association of Governments meeting.

"The impact of this is going to be huge for the industry," Potter said. "There are contractors who will go out of business. There are people who will wind up in the unemployment line."

Regulations already control pollution coughed up by the state's public buses, garbage trucks and long-haul trucks. The proposed regulations target construction equipment, as well as off-road diesel vehicles used by landscapers, airports, ski resorts, landfills and warehouses.

The vehicles targeted in the newer rules are contributing to Southern California's soot and smog problem, said James Lents, former head of the South Coast Air Quality Management District. The district regulates stationary sources of pollution in the basin of Los Angeles, Orange County, western Riverside County and western San Bernardino County.

"We're finding out more and more that the nitrogen oxides and particulates that are being emitted by all diesel vehicles -- on-road and off-road -- are major contributors to the air pollution problem," Lents said. "And they have to be controlled."

According to the state Air Resources Board, these off-road vehicles are responsible for a quarter of California's mobile diesel emissions of particulates, or soot, and a fifth of mobile diesel emissions of nitrogen oxides, a precursor to smog. Both pollutants, in high concentrations, have been shown by studies to impair breathing for the young and old, and people with heart and lung ailments, and to cause premature death.

In San Diego County, construction equipment is the source of 12 percent of all nitrogen oxide emissions and 4 percent of soot, said Robert Reider, planning supervisor for the county Air Pollution Control District.

San Diego County is in compliance with federal standards for soot, but the area exceeds smog limits. Riverside County air exceeds limits for both pollutants.

The construction coalition warned that the historic $43 billion infrastructure bond package voters approved in November -- including $20 billion for transportation -- will not go as far as planned if the rules go into effect. High costs for replacing and retrofitting equipment will drive up prices for individual projects, the coalition said.

The group's report states that a new scraper -- a common piece of construction equipment that scrapes dirt with a blade -- costs more than $1 million, and that it costs $300,000 to replace a scraper engine with a cleaner one.

But there are economic consequences associated with a delay, as well, said Karen Caesar, spokeswoman for the California Air Resources Board in Los Angeles.

"If we stretch out the compliance dates over too long a period, we don't get the emissions reductions we need to meet federal air quality standards which kick in in 2014," Caesar said, by e-mail. "If these aren't met, we could lose federal highway dollars. Who builds the highways? The construction industry."

If anything, said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which is trying to design a road map for meeting federal standards by 2014, the state should require equipment to be replaced earlier.

Contractors, on the other hand, contend that what the state is asking is unrealistic and unfair because the air-pollution control technology required to comply isn't available yet -- and may not be even seven years from now.

"There is no 'Toyota Prius' version of the backhoe or bulldozer available on the market today," the organization said in a May 4 report.

Caesar said the state acknowledges emission-control devices are still being developed, and for that reason the rules are flexible.

"Fleet owners will not be penalized if technology does not become available as expected," she said.

The Air Resources Board estimates that it will cost the $68 billion-a-year construction industry $4 billion over 13 years to comply with the rules. The construction industry, which employs 1 million Californians, maintains the number is closer to $13 billion.

The showdown over the landmark proposal, which could set the stage for tougher rules elsewhere in the country, comes as Southern California enters another smog season. Most bad air days occur between May and October.

-- Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.