By Jorge Casuso
April 2 – There is little chance the Big Blue Bus will face further fines from the
California Air Resources Board (ARB) after having fit its entire fleet with devices that reduce pollution and phasing out its bio-diesel fleet, local transit officials said.
The transit agency -- whose logo is “ride blue, go green” -- was slapped with a $21,000 fine this month for failing to “test, measure and maintain records of smoke emissions from its heavy duty diesel transit fleet in 2006 and 2007," according to the State board.
“The Big Blue Bus is committed to meeting or exceeding all Air Resources Board emission requirements,” Santa Monica transit officials said in a statement released Wednesday.
The Big Blue Bus “has taken the necessary steps to ensure that all future compliance reporting to (the board) will include the required data from its entire fleet of buses,” they said.
The bus system’s fleet of more than 200 vehicles is now in total compliance with all ARB regulations and operates on alternative fuels, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), which helps cut emissions by more than 80 percent, transit officials said.
The Big Blue Bus is currently phasing out the last of its larger Transit Fleet Vehicles (TFV) – those 35 feet or longer -- that run on bio-diesel and replacing them with 10 new electric hybrid buses, officials said.
In 2007, Santa Monica’s Bus system complied within three months with the new emissions requirements for its 186 transit fleet buses, according to officials. Among the steps taken was installing emissions devices that lowered pollutants by 85 percent.
The fines had more to do with the required paperwork than with pollutants, officials said.
“What triggered the fine, was the missing opacity test receipts – NOT Big Blue Bus polluting the environment,” transit officials wrote.
Under the settlement with the ARB, the Blue Bus must provide copies of all smoke inspection test compliance records for 2008 to 2011, according to officials of the ARB, a department of the California Environmental Protection Agency.
In 1998, the ARB identified diesel particulate matter as a toxic air contaminant in order to protect public health, board officials said. Exposure to diesel emissions can increase the risk of cancer and serious heart and lung disease.
In 2006, the Big Blue Bus worked with ARB to formulate a particulate matter reduction plan that included installing 47 “particulate trap devices” that reduced emissions from each vehicle, transit officials said. |
