EPA Moving on New Front to Cut Pollution

[AP / H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is moving on a new front to
cut air pollution. This time ferry boats and harbor tugs, farm
tractors and train locomotives, and dirt movers at construction
sites are the targets.
The Environmental Protection Agency is issuing new
regulations aimed at cutting the amount of smog-causing chemicals
and fine soot that comes from these off-road diesel-powered vehicles
and machinery.
The regulation, which EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt is
finalizing on Tuesday, is viewed by environmentalists and state air
pollution control officials as key to meeting federal air quality
health standards.
About 159 million people live in areas where smog or
microscopic soot is making the air unhealthy, says a recent EPA
analysis. The agency cites off-road vehicles used in construction,
farming, industrial plants and airports as one reason for the
problem.
Those vehicles account for a quarter of all the smog-causing
nitrogen oxide and nearly half of the fine soot from mobile sources,
according to the EPA. Air pollution in port areas and along major
rivers is aggravated by diesel exhausts from ferries, tug boats and
barges.
The EPA regulation, first proposed a year ago, requires
refiners to lower the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel for such
engines to 500 parts per million by 2007 and to 15 parts per million
by 2010. That means less pollution will come out of the tailpipes.
Manufacturers also can build cleaner burning engines since the fuel
no longer will contain most of the sulfur that damages catalytic
converters and other emissions control devices.
Now diesel fuel contains as much as 3,400 parts per million
of sulfur.
With the cleaner fuel and new engine standards, smog-causing
nitrogen oxide and microscopic soot from off-road vehicles and
equipment will be reduced by more than 90 percent, the EPA
estimates.
Fine soot and smog are blamed for increases in respiratory
illnesses and thousands of premature deaths annually. Children, the
elderly and people suffering from asthma are especially vulnerable.
Leavitt, after briefing President Bush on Monday about the
new diesel regulations and other air quality issues, compared the
effort to reduce pollution from off-road vehicles to the government
years ago removing lead from gasoline.
"We're now going to take sulfur out of diesel, and add
catalytic converters to diesel engines," Leavitt told reporters.
"The result will be that that black puff of diesel smoke that we've
become accustomed to seeing on big trucks and on construction
equipment and on buses will be a thing of the past."
The EPA previously issued requirements for cleaner diesel
fuel for large tractor-trailer rigs, trucks and buses, and for
gasoline, forcing refiners to take most of the sulfur out of these
fuels.
Together, the new diesel engine and fuel requirements will
have "substantial air quality and public health benefits," agreed
Bill Becker, executive director of associations representing state
and local air pollution control officials. "This rule will play a
key role in helping states and localities ... meet health-based air
quality standards."
Becker said state officials and environmentalists had wanted
the low-sulfur fuel to be required as early as 2007, but after
refiners said they couldn't meet the deadline, they were given until
2010. In return, the EPA agreed to expand the rule to cover marine
vessels and locomotives.
The Bush administration and the EPA in particular have been
under heavy criticism from environmentalists over air quality
issues, including actions that give industry more flexibility in
dealing with pollution from power plants and in reducing mercury
emissions.
But environmentalists applauded the EPA's diesel fuel rule.
"It's remarkable that these strong rules come from the same
administration that has otherwise turned back the clock on 30 years
of environmental progress," said Emily Figdor of the U.S. Public
Interest Research Group, a grass-roots environmental advocacy group.
Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the
industry-sponsored Diesel Technology Forum, said the tougher fuel
requirements will usher in "a new era of off-road diesel engines and
equipment."
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On the Net:
Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov
Diesel Technology Forum: www.dieselforum.org