Group blames ‘dangerous’ DPFs for truck fires

[kscarbel2]

The Business Journal / July 24, 2015

A group representing California truckers, farmers and business owners is claiming the state attorney general’s office is ignoring a rash of recent truck fires it claims were sparked by faulty diesel particulate filters.

The Alliance for California Business, a Chico-based nonprofit with more than 400 members, is blasting both the attorney general and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for “refusing to investigate” the truck fires — and attempting “to block others from doing so.”

“These diesel particulate filters [DPFs] are the most dangerous pieces of equipment ever put on a truck,” said Alliance President Bud Caldwell, 65, a former “kingpin” for the California Truckers Association and owner of Northgate Petroleum in Chico.

In the trucking business for nearly 50 years, Caldwell said he formed the Alliance in 2013 “to lead the charge” against mandatory DPF laws in California, the only state in the country that currently requires them.

“I’m getting calls on a daily basis from truckers having trouble with these things,” he said. “I don’t have the staff to handle it.”

Perhaps most worrisome of all, Caldwell added, is that the filters are also standard equipment on all diesel-powered buses in the state, including school buses.

A spokesperson from the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris declined to comment on Caldwell’s allegations, directing questions to CARB.

But earlier this year, a judge in Northern California denied the Alliance’s request for a preliminary injunction related to use of the filters, which, when a truck engine is running, can reach temperatures exceeding 600 degrees Celsius.

In December 2008, CARB established the ‘California Statewide Truck and Bus Rule,’ which requires all on-road diesel heavy trucks and buses operating in California be “retrofitted, repowered or replaced to reduce particulate matter emissions by at least 85 percent.”

In order to decrease sooty emissions, DPFs are standard equipment on new trucks and installed — retrofitted — onto older diesel engines.

CARB mandates the use of specific filter types based on a truck engine’s age and manufacturer.

When one major filter manufacturer, Cleaire, went out of business in January 2013, hundreds of trucking companies using their filters were suddenly scrambling for replacements, forced to deal with third party vendors while wondering if their fleets remained in compliance with state law.

At a hearing held earlier this year, the Alliance argued DPFs were mechanically unreliable — and posed a serious fire risk when exposed to fuel or other flammable liquids.

One trucker, Hank de Carbonel, testified the devices “increase the likelihood of fires and explosions” once they become clogged.

Other truckers described being stuck on the side of the highway or having to take their trucks out of use because of trouble with DPFs.

Caldwell claims at least 31 truck fires — “all related to DPFs” — have occurred in the last 18 months.

On July 7, four separate fires along Highway 156 in San Juan Bautista were attributed to a faulty diesel particulate filter. According to the Hollister fire chief, pieces of it were found on the road next to each blaze.

Jim Ganduglia, owner of Ganduglia Trucking in Fresno, said his drivers have yet to experience any fires related to the devices but that “three or four times,” he’s had to have trucks towed because the filters shut down the engines.

“The towing bills are starting to add up,” he said.

Ganduglia said the problem is aggravated when trucks are idling at job sites or rest stops for long periods of time. “If you idle a truck for eight or 10 hours, it’s creating soot in the filter without enough heat being generated to burn off the ash.”

Ganduglia said Volvo and Freightliner “are changing their protocols on servicing” their engines to try to deal with the issue.

Earlier this year, Glenn County Superior Court Judge Peter Twede declined to issue an injunction against CARB, ruling the Alliance had not made “a significant showing of irreparable injury” caused by DPFs.

“However,” the judge added, “the possibility of these safety issues is very concerning.”

CARB, headed since 2007 by former EPA administrator Mary D. Nichols, is one of six boards, departments and offices operating under the umbrella of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Karen Caesar, an information officer for CARB, declined to answer questions about the controversial filters, saying, “We do not comment on pending litigation.”

But Caesar did forward a CARB report claiming DPFs are “effective and reliable” in removing 98 percent of toxic diesel emissions.

The filters, the 56-page study concluded, “do not increase the likelihood of truck fires and are manufactured in accordance with federal and state safety requirements.”

The Alliance continues to dispute those conclusions and is now taking depositions of key CARB executive staff responsible for approving the DPFs.

Caldwell is incensed CARB continues to blame the fires on operators who do not properly maintain their filters. The Alliance plans to conduct its own investigation, he said, and “bring forth the experts required to prove that the DPF device should not be allowed on California highways.”

“For every fire suspected of being linked to the DPF device, the Alliance has requested police, fire and California Highway Patrol reports,” he added. “For every subpoena issued by the Alliance for this information, CARB has filed objections to the disclosure — with no explanation to date for why it would not want that information disclosed to the Alliance and members of the public.”

Caldwell said the Alliance plans to renew its motion for an injunction, this time asking for a permanent one.

“If the California Air Resources Board was genuinely concerned with the health and safety of citizens and not just with defending their mandate, why would they prevent anyone from looking into truck fires?” Caldwell said.

Ganduglia, a former chairman of the California Truckers Association’s Environmental Policy Committee, supports the Alliance’s effort to call attention to the issues with DPFs. But he said he doesn’t “think they have a leg to stand on” with regard to changing CARB policy.

“There’s no way in hell [the Air Board] is going to back off of this,” Ganduglia said. “I think we’re stuck with it, at least until they come up with a new form of fuel.”

.