LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced May 4 that it has reached settlements totaling more than $201,000 with three companies that had allegedly violated California’s Truck and Bus Regulation.
"Diesel trucks are heavily used in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles Basin, which suffer from some of the worst air quality in the nation,” said Alexis Strauss, EPA’s acting regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “EPA is committed to helping California achieve cleaner, healthier air by ensuring compliance with the state’s pollution rules.”
The defendants are C.R. England Inc., Knight Transportation Inc. and Werner Enterprises Inc. C.R. England purportedly operated 34 heavy-duty diesel trucks in California between 2013 and 2014 without proper diesel particulate filters. Knight Transportation allegedly failed to make sure its carriers complied with the Truck and Bus Regulation in California between 2012 and 2014. Werner Enterprises purportedly failed to acquire the proper diesel particulate filters for five heavy-duty diesel trucks in California between 2012 and 2014.
“These cases are examples of how California and the EPA can work together to protect Californians’ health by strongly enforcing the regulation to clean up our trucks and buses,” said chief of CARB enforcement Todd Sax. “When trucking companies operate in California, compliance with state laws is essential.”