WM reaches $1-million settlement with California Air Resources Board
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

Waste Management recently settled with the California Air Resources Board for more than $1 million for failing to properly inspect its diesel truck fleet to ensure state emission standards were met.

The nation's largest trash hauler settled for air quality violations that occurred in 2004 and 2005 at sites throughout the state- including Simi Valley.

"Trash pick-up is a critical service, but emissions from uninspected trucks are not something Californians should pay for with their health," said Mary Nichols, ARB chairwoman, in a prepared statement.

California's Periodic Smoke Inspection Program is used to ensure that all of the state's heavyduty vehicle fleets are properly maintained, tamper-free and free from excessive smoke emissions.

Each year, companies with "big rig" fleets such as WM are required to provide documentation showing that all of their vehicles are in compliance with the state's stringent emissions limits, according to CARB's Gennet Paauwe.

"The violations occurred for one of three reasons, either 1) they did not do the inspections, 2) they did not repair trucks that failed the inspection or 3) they didn't maintain records showing compliance with the program."

Brian Bowen, environmental protection director for WM, said it was the latter.

"What happened is we couldn't find records that we should have had to document the results of periodic smoke inspections," Bowen said. "In my mind it was a record keeping issue."

In addition to the settlement, WM has agreed to comply with the smoke inspection program and will require all fleet staff responsible for compliance with ARB's regulations to attend classes conducted by the California Council on Diesel Education and Technology.

WM must also supply to ARB all smoke inspection records for 2007 and the subsequent four years.

"We've implemented steps to improve our internal controls to make sure all diesel trucks are tested as part of a routine preventative maintenance program," Bowen said. "We've also hired a California fleet compliance manager to manage the 3,100 vehicles we employ in the state."

Paauwe said the board is looking into all trash hauling fleets in the state, and expects other violators to be identified in upcoming months.

"To put it plainly, this should be an example for other trash haulers to take note of, because we're not just looking at the big companies, we're looking at the smaller ones as well," Paauwe said. "We're not picking on any one company- we're picking on all of them."