Special Patrol Is Filtering Out Smoke-Belching Freeway Vehicles : Air Pollution: Cars and trucks account for two-thirds of the smog problem. So, the CHP is looking for those with a ‘smoking problem.’

Like a grotesque bluish-gray wave, the immense bank of smoke rolled past the patrol car driven by officer Greg Dettinger and drifted down the freeway.

The California Highway Patrol officer hit the gas, charging past other motorists who took their hands off their noses long enough to jab a finger forward.

After tracking the smoke trail for two miles, Dettinger approached a 1981 Ford Ranger truck that was so enveloped in noxious smoke, “I had a hard time seeing the truck from 100 feet away,” the officer said.

“He had so many violations, I wrote two full pages,” Dettinger said. And as the officer stood by the roadside filling out the citations, people cheered from passing cars.

Cheers are not something the average patrolman usually receives from the driving public. But as a member of a special Southern California CHP anti-pollution team that patrolled the freeways of South County on Friday, Dettinger says he is getting used to the applause.

“People love what we do,” he said. “Everyone is really happy that someone is doing something about air pollution.”

The pollution patrolman is part of an eight-member team of CHP officers hired by the South Coast Air Quality Management District at a cost of $648,000 annually.

They drive all-white patrol cars emblazoned with a special AQMD insignia and are known to truckers as “polar bears.”

Motorists account for two-thirds of the Los Angeles basin’s smog problem, according to the AQMD. The team’s mission: to comb the freeways in search of vehicles that have a “smoking problem.”

A fact sheet published by the air quality agency points out that Southern California’s estimated 8 million cars produce 97% of the carbon monoxide in the air and 73% of all nitrogen oxides.

In 1988, the state agency decided that contracting with the CHP to catch polluting vehicles would also be a good public relations move.

“The key is to be visible,” Dettinger said. “The bottom line is a lot of activity and visibility. We have to let people know what we’re doing out there.”

With an average of 1,100 citations written monthly, the anti-pollution unit “probably writes about 90% of the tickets for smoking vehicles in California,” said Sgt. Chuck Lofton, leader of the CHP team.

It took Dettinger no longer than 15 minutes to find his first “smoker” on Friday.

While idling on the side of Interstate 5 in San Clemente, Dettinger pointed to a steady cloud of blue-gray exhaust streaming from the tailpipe of a brown Datsun truck.

“We’ve got a real live one here,” he said, pulling behind the truck and flashing his lights.

As the pickup stopped, huge billows of smoke erupted from the exhaust pipe, completely engulfing the vehicle.

“I don’t understand it, I just put a new engine in,” explained the Mission Viejo motorist. Dettinger wrote him a ticket for excessive exhaust emissions, driving with a suspended license and without insurance and not wearing a seat belt.

“Man, this just isn’t my day,” the driver said.

But it could have been worse for the Mission Viejo resident, who will probably be fined up to $1,000, the patrolman guessed.

“I could have impounded his car,” Dettinger said. “This guy definitely makes my Top 5 list.”

Heavy diesel trucks account for more than three-quarters of the citations issued by the “smoke patrol,” Lofton said. But in contrast to passenger vehicles, truck drivers are seldom responsible for the citation and/or fines.

“The ticket goes to the guy who owns the truck,” said Dettinger. “The guy driving will usually tell me how glad he was that I stopped him and ask me to check out his brakes and tires too,” as a precaution, the Dettinger said.

One truck driver who was stopped works for a beer distributor in San Diego, and he agreed with Dettinger.

“I work for a good company. I’m lucky,” he said. “But when you’re driving a piece of junk (the owners) don’t care about what shape the rig is in.”

In San Juan Capistrano on Interstate 5, the truck driver’s 1985 Kenworth was blowing dirty brown-black smoke, surpassing the amount of pollutants allowed by state law, Dettinger said.

Every officer in the CHP team is trained and tested on a color chart that matches the amount of polluting chemicals to the shade of a vehicle’s exhaust smoke.

“Unfortunately, I seem to be making a little too much smoke today,” the trucker said.

The truck driver said he supports pollution laws, “especially in view of what happened in Huntington Beach,” referring to last week’s oil spill.

“These days, the environment is where it’s at,” he said.