The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently launched a long-term enforcement strategy to cut down on what it called "smoke-spewing diesel trucks and buses," especially in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by pollution.


Under the plan, DEC will carry out regular but unannounced enforcement actions in hot spots where heavy truck traffic enters or exits a neighborhood, as well as areas where diesel trucks tend to congregate. At those hot spots, DEC will implement pullover operations that target trucks putting out visible exhaust - in violation of state air regulations. DEC will also conduct random enforcement against illegal idling.

"We call this our Stop Smoking Initiative for Trucks," said DEC Regional Director Gene Kelly. "Just as cigarette smoke creates risks not only for smokers but also those around smokers, polluting trucks put neighborhoods at risk. In addition, this initiative will help identify the dirtiest diesels on the road and influence them to clean up their act."

The initiative is based on a successful pilot program in New York City. In one day in 2007 in East Harlem, DEC law-enforcement officers pulled over and inspected 361 diesel trucks and issued 163 tickets for various violations of state air and safety regulations. The officers also issued 10 tickets for excessive idling.

Based on that operation, DEC estimates that close to 20 percent of the trucks traveling East Harlem daily are out of compliance with state air regulations. That ratio was replicated in a second pullover operation in Harlem on Oct. 31, 2008.

DEC, together with community groups and local governments, intends to work together to develop an outreach program to educate the trucking industry and neighborhoods groups about the laws and serious consequences of polluting trucks. A key feature of the program will involve empowering communities to identify idling hot spots in their neighborhoods.