Gateway Cities truck program passes milestone

Gateway Cities truck program passes milestone The Gateway Cities Council of Governments said Tuesday its 5-year-old program to replace older trucks servicing the Southern California ports had passed the 600-truck milestone.
   Since its inception in 2002 the Gateway Cities Fleet Modernization Program, part of the quasi-governmental organization's Clean Air Program, has funded the replacement of 602 area trucks with newer cleaner burning models.
   The Fleet Modernization program is one of three elements of the Gateway Cities Clean Air Program, which is managed in partnership with the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, the California Air Resources Board, the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To date, about 75 percent of the funding for the Fleet Replacement Program has come from the Port of Los Angeles, with the other groups splitting the rest of the bill.
   The Fleet Modernization Program provides owners of heavy-duty trucks operating primarily in the 27 cities that make up the Gateway Cities Council of Governments with funding to replace their older vehicles. The grants provided under the program typically account for two-thirds or more of the replacement costs. Replaced trucks are destroyed to ensure that the vehicles do not wind up on the road again.
   Each replacement truck, required to operate 85 percent of the time within the South Coast Air Basin for five years, significantly reduces emissions of smog-forming chemicals and toxic air contaminants. An average replacement truck will prevent about 1,200 pounds of NOx and 800 pounds of diesel particulate emissions from being emitted over its five years in the program. In the future, the quantity of emissions reduction is expected to increase due to recent program changes that require even cleaner replacement trucks.
   Award levels are determined on a case by case basis and based on the amount of pollution avoided through the replacement of the older truck. The average award per truck since the program began is about $36,300, although this number has increased significantly as the newest and cleanest replacement trucks have become available for deployment.
   The Gateway Cities program served as the model for the truck replacement component of the two ports' controversial $1.8 billion truck re-regulation plan that is scheduled to be voted on late next month.