SACRAMENTO - The California Air Resources Board has fined three companies $726,250 for failing to comply with the state’s Cargo Handling Equipment (CHE) Regulation. The regulation sets emission standards for a range of equipment used mostly at ports and railyards, including gantry cranes, yard trucks, and forklifts.

"Emissions from the ports can travel far inland but they have the strongest impact on those who live and work near these busy trade hubs,” said Todd Sax, CARB’s Enforcement Division Chief. “With enforcement of the Cargo Handling Equipment Regulation, CARB has been able to achieve a high compliance rate, significantly reducing emissions of diesel air contaminants in port-adjacent communities.”

Seaside Transportation Services, Penny Newman Grain Company, and CEMEX Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, were all cited for failing to ensure that their cargo handling equipment met the requirements for reduced emissions under the cargo handling rule.   

Seaside Transportation Services will pay a fine of $437,500 to be divided equally between the California Air Pollution Control Fund to support education and research, and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District for its school bus diesel emission reduction Supplemental Environmental Project.

Penny Newman Grain Company will pay $170,625 to the California Air Pollution Control Fund.

CEMEX Construction Materials Pacific, LLC will pay $118,125, to be divided equally between the California Air Pollution Control Fund and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District for cleaner school buses. 

CARB has been vigorously enforcing the Cargo Handling Equipment rule, adopted in 2009 and  amended in 2012. As a result, compliance for yard trucks (heavy duty diesel trucks that move containers within and between terminals) increased from 61 percent in 2012 to 89 percent by the end of 2015.  Compliance for “non-yard” trucks (rubber tired gantry cranes, forklifts, etc.) trucks increased from 44 percent to 92 percent over the same time period.

Diesel exhaust contains a variety of harmful gases and more than 40 other known cancer-causing compounds. In 1998, California identified diesel particulate matter as a toxic air contaminant based on its potential to cause cancer, premature death and other health problems.