California's Air Resources Board settled 37 cases of air quality violations during the second quarter, mostly by trucks and buses for failure to properly conduct and pass self-inspections aimed at measuring vehicle smoke emissions to ensure state requirements are met.


The four companies paying the highest amounts were:

* County of Imperial, Department of Public Works, fined $27,000.00 for failure to properly self-inspect its diesel trucks to assure the vehicles met state smoke emission standards, as required under the Periodic Smoke Inspection Program (PSIP).

* Marquez Brothers International Inc., fined $24,000 for failure to comply with diesel fleet self-inspection requirements, and for violations of the Transport Refrigeration Unit (TRU) regulation.

* Brotherhood Trucking Inc., fined $17,617.50 for failing to properly self-inspect its diesel fleets and dispatching drayage trucks that either did not meet emission standards or were not entered into the Drayage Truck Registry.

* West Coast Refrigerated Trucking Inc., fined $15,750 for failing to properly inspect its diesel fleet and for not upgrading all its TRU engines as required by the TRU regulation.

Of the $223,295 collected, approximately $172,000 went to the California Air Pollution Control Fund to support air quality projects and research to improve California's air quality. Roughly $52,000 went to the Peralta Community College District to fund emission education classes at participating California community colleges under the California Council for Diesel Education and Technology program.