Dialogue begins concerning truck idling ban
March 15, 2012
By Michele Mihalovich
By Michele Mihalovich Trucks wait in a small parking section of the TA Truck Stop in North Bend. The City Council is considering limiting how long tractor-trailers can idle.
The majority of people who turned out for a public hearing on North Bend’s proposed truck idling ban spoke out against the ordinance, including a TravelCenters of America field manager from Oregon.
The TA truck stop, known locally as Truck Town, has been located near Interstate 90’s exit 34 for nearly 40 years. But the city’s boundary has expanded over the years, and now Truck Town is neighbors with a large residential area and a middle school.
City leaders say complaints about the noise and fumes, and concerns about air quality, are what prompted the ordinance draft.
The ordinance proposes a five-minute idling limit for trucks with a gross vehicle weight more than 10,001 pounds, unless more time is needed to defrost windows. Buses, city work trucks, motor homes, farm equipment and public safety vehicles would be exempt. Violators would be fined $150 for a first offense and $300 for a second offense; a truck driver and any landowner allowing idling could be fined.
Tom Kemp, of North Bend, told the council he was concerned about the ordinance language that states residents “have been adversely affected by idling of heavy-duty diesel trucks.”
He said, “That’s an unsupported assumption, because no air quality studies have been conducted.”
Kemp also pointed out that truck engines and fuel have been improved in recent years and aren’t the polluters they used to be.
“Just because a truck is idling doesn’t mean there’s toxic exhaust,” he said.
Three women who work at the truck stop restaurant urged the council to reject the ordinance.
“If you approve this ordinance, the truckers are just going to go somewhere else, which jeopardizes my job,” Angela Bankston said.
Drew Macauley, the TA field manager, also pointed out the economic benefit of Truck Town to the city.
“We pay $45,000 in property taxes annually that goes to help your schools and the city,” he said. “We also employ 61 people, and more than half of them live in North Bend.”
Larry Costich, a Seattle attorney who represents TA, said what the city is trying to do has “laudable goals, but it’s premature for the times.”
He said truckers let their trucks idle because they need to in order to use their heaters or air-conditioners.
“There are no measured environmental impacts,” Costich said. “But the economic impact to the truckers and the truck stop will be felt. And they contribute to the economic development of this community.”
City documents indicate that it wanted to encourage the trucking industry to use Alternative Power Units, onboard generators that allow truckers to heat or cool their vehicles without the trucks running. They cost about $10,000 per unit.
Grants would be sought for constructing electrical outlets in parking areas, the documents state.
But Macauley said the city’s plan was “premature and technologically infeasible.”
He said only one in five trucks have APUs, despite the fact that they’ve been around for years. Macauley said the price tag was out of reach for many independent drivers.
He also said that having electrified outlets doesn’t do truckers any good because heating and air-conditioning units in the trucks run off the engine, not electricity.
The four people who spoke in favor of the ordinance cited environmental concerns as their reasoning.
“I am sympathetic to the drivers, but I am concerned about the environment,” Michelle Mennis, of North Bend, said. “This has been successfully implemented in other places and it should be looked at.”
“The truckers won’t be going away so we need to figure this out,” Jeff Martine, of North Bend, said. “We need to be welcoming to the truckers, but at the same time, not endanger our citizens.”
The council took no action after the public hearing.
Councilman Jonathan Rosen said after the meeting that he learned a lot from the 12 people who spoke and he was glad that a discussion took place.
“It was a great starting point,” he said. “And Mr. Kemp was right. No air quality studies have been done here. How do we even go about doing that? I don’t know. I think our next step is to discuss what we heard here tonight at a future workstudy session.”
Michele Mihalovich: 392-6434, ext. 246, or editor@snovalleystar.com.
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[...] were against the ordinance, including representatives of TravelCenters of America, according to a Sno Valley Star [...]
Children breathe 50% more air per pound than adults. (EPA sheet on school bus idling). We cannot wait for the area to be declared a problem with a 520 student middle school within 2000 feet of the truck stop. In order for the State to declare a problem the area must violate federal air quality standards in order to be a non-attainment rating. Yet, on average, overall mortality increases by 0.5% for every 10 microgram per cubic meter increase in PM10 measured the day before death. The effect is slightly greater for deaths due to heart and lung disease than for total deaths. (National Morbidity, Mortality and Air Pollution Study) • The public health costs of NOx, SOx, and PM emissions from motor vehicles are $12,700 per ton, $130,500 per ton, and $121,100, respectively (Small and Kazimi, 1995).
Vehicle exhaust is the leading source of hazardous air pollution in Washington. (National Transportation Library)
Why limiting vehicle emissions and lowing C02 levels is important and why does this policy matter even if our air seems clean? Diesel particulate matter (PM)2.5 poses the most serious risk from diesel exhaust because of its toxicity. PM2.5 from diesel exhaust is more toxic than other forms of PM2.5, such as wood smoke. Recent research shows that diesel PM2.5 can cause very serious health effects even at levels much lower than what air quality standards allow. This is due to both the toxic nature of the particles and the fact that they can be breathed deep into the lungs where they remain lodged.
We must control the CO2 sources in our jurisdiction. The new 2010 figures for the global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide calculated by the U.S. Department of Energy jumped by the biggest amount on record. The new carbon dioxide figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago. “The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing,” said John Reilly, co-director of MIT’s Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. The world pumped about 564 million more tons (512 million metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009. That’s an increase of 6 percent. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries – China, the United States and India, the world’s top producers of greenhouse gases.
According to the American Transportation Research Institute by the end of 2012, ground freight transportation is projected to consume over 45 billion gallons of diesel fuel and produce over 450 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.
The WA State DOT in 2003 estimated that there are over 180,000 on-road legacy diesel vehicles registered in Washington State and over 85,000 of these are in the heavy duty on-road category (heavy duty is defined as > 14,000 lbs GVW and not registered as personal use trucks)12. Heavy duty on-road vehicles contribute the most diesel PM2.5 of all the on-road sources, and the heaviest of the heavy duty (>33,000 lbs GVW) contribute 78 percent of the on-road heavy duty diesel PM2.5. [Note: Although light duty passenger vehicles, light duty passenger trucks and light duty commercial trucks account for 45 percent of all on-road diesel vehicles, they only account for 1 percent of the total diesel PM2.5 emissions.
Last, this is not just an impact to human health but that of the ocean waters, impacting sea life and our fishing industry. About 30% of the anthropogenic (human related) CO2 emissions are absorbed annually by the oceans, and about 50% remain in the atmosphere. As a result, the atmospheric CO2 concentration is increasing at a mean rate of about 1.5 ppm yr -1 (or 0.4% per year), and the concentration of CO2 dissolved in surface ocean waters is also increasing, thus causing the acidification of ocean waters.