SACRAMENTO -- The California Air Resources Board today announced that Rewards Leasing Inc., a waste management company, paid $534,000 for diesel truck air quality violations.

A $400,500 payment will go to the California Air Pollution Control Fund, established to decrease air pollution through education and the advancement and use of cleaner  technologies, and $133,500 goes to the non-profit Climate Protection Campaign to fund a project dedicated to reducing emissions from solid waste.

“The danger of uncontrolled or faulty exhaust controls on trash trucks is particularly serious because they spend most of their time operating in neighborhoods where we live and our children play,” said ARB Enforcement Chief James Ryden. “When industry complies with state rules by installing and maintaining exhaust controls, our communities are safer.”

Self-reported compliance records reviewed by ARB enforcement staff indicated that Reward Leasing, also doing business as Northbay Corporation based in Santa Rosa, Calif., neglected to install required emission-reduction devices on their diesel refuse trucks. Additionally, the company failed to properly inspect the trucks to assure engine exhaust meets state smoke emission standards.

Under the settlement, Reward Leasing must:

• Submit annual reports verifying compliance with regulations for 2011 and 2012;
• Install devices on the exhaust systems to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx), a smog causing pollutant;
• Send appropriate staff to classes on diesel technology and exhaust treatment;
• Prove engines meet standards by affixing emission control labels; and,
• Instruct employees to comply with vehicle idling regulations.

Diesel exhaust contains a variety of harmful gases and over 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.