To RETURN to INDEX close this browser window

---

 For immediate release: September 12, 2002

WLAP and ICBC scrap roadside program that limits hazardous diesel emissions

The Lower Mainland’s only program to control dangerous levels of toxic truck and bus diesel emissions has been cut by ICBC and the BC Ministry of Water Land and Air Protection (WLAP). The roadside testing program - Air-Care On Road- was started by ICBC, the GVRD and the Fraser Valley Regional District in 1998 as an attempt to limit emissions from the region’s growing fleet of diesel vehicles. WLAP officials cited costs as the reason for scrapping the program and hope the GVRD and FVRD pick up the funding slack.

“Diesel particulate has been identified by regional health authorities as a hazardous air pollutant,” said SPEC president David Cadman. “Air-Care On Road was supposed to begin to get at the problem. By cutting roadside testing, WLAP and ICBC are abandoning their responsibility to protect the air quality and health of British Columbians.”

Air-Care On Road operated two mobile units that randomly checked polluting trucks and buses. Since November 2001, less than 20 trucks had been tested of the more than 23,000 registered in the Lower Mainland. Ontario requires all diesel trucks to get an annual air emissions test, while Quebec will be implementing a similar program next year.

“This is a tremendous disappointment that the program has been cut before appropriate and sustainable funding has been put in place to continue the testing,” said John Newhook, GVRD’s Senior Engineer, Policy and Planning. “By cutting Air-Care On Road we are moving backward.”

In 2001, the South Fraser Health Region issued a report identifying diesel pollutants as a serious medical hazard in the Lower Mainland. The US Environmental Protection Agency recently concluded that particulate in diesel exhaust “is likely to pose a lung cancer hazard to humans.”

-30-

Information: David Cadman 604 736-7732, 604 318-0001

To RETURN to INDEX close this browser window

1260