L.A. Council Adopts Clean Fuel Policy

Those sooty, smoky trash trucks and buses that lumber down city streets will eventually run on cleaner-burning fuel, under a new policy adopted Tuesday by the Los Angeles City Council.

The new citywide clean fuel regulations call for the gradual replacement--by the year 2003--of all of the 650 city owned and operated trash trucks, as well as transit buses and other fleet vehicles.

“It’s critically important because we know air pollution is a contributing factor to substantial health risks, namely cancer, heart disease, and asthma,” said Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, who recommended the policy. “We as a city cannot contribute to that problem. We have decided to set an example.”

The city’s fleet of trash trucks, buses, passenger vehicles, small and medium trucks and other vehicles total about 15,000, Ridley-Thomas said.

Estimates of the cost of the fleet conversion vary. Bus replacement is estimated at $18 million to $20 million over seven years, Ridley-Thomas said, and trash truck conversion about $68 million to $100 million over a decade. He said converting other city vehicles will have a negligible cost because many are already non-diesel or powered by compressed natural gas.

However, the city’s chief legislative analyst office estimates converting the refuse trucks could top $177 million over the next seven years.

Diesel exhaust has been a target by environmentalists and regional and state air pollution agencies.

Last year, the South Coast Air Quality Management District emphasized that diesel exhaust is a carcinogen. Soot and gases expelled by diesel engines have been linked to lung cancer, asthma attacks and other diseases.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has also been under pressure to eliminate diesel-powered buses. Last month, after a backlash by environmentalists and a bus rider’s union, the MTA reversed its decision to buy 370 diesel buses, opting instead to purchase natural gas-powered vehicles.

The Los Angeles Basin’s air ranks among the worst in the country for many pollutants, and diesel engines have been blamed for most of that.

Diesel exhaust is also a hot issue for opponents of the reopening of Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills. It has been estimated that the landfill would require hundreds of daily diesel truck trips adjacent to a residential neighborhood.