EPA Fines Auto Repair Shops in Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska for ‘Defeat Device’ Violations
LENEXA, KAN. (AUG. 30, 2022) – The U.S. Environmental Defense Company (EPA) has penalized 3 companies to resolve alleged violations of the federal Thoroughly clean Air Act (CAA). According to EPA, the companies mounted and/or marketed illegal “defeat devices” in auto engines developed to render emissions controls inoperative.
Central Iowa Truck Maintenance LLC of Boone, Iowa, will fork out a civil penalty of $95,371 R.T.R. Roger’s Truck Restore LLC of Fenton, Missouri, will pay $46,316 and Husker Diesel Inc. of Gretna, Nebraska, will spend $60,150.
“Modifying automobile emissions controls is illegal, contributes noticeably to unsafe air pollution, and tends to make it more durable to satisfy air top quality specifications,” stated David Cozad, director of EPA Location 7’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. “These unlawful methods exacerbate the consequences of pollution in now overburdened communities.”
As element of their settlements with EPA, all three providers agreed to demolish their inventories of defeat machine elements and certified that they stopped offering or putting in devices that disable car emission controls.
R.T.R. Roger’s Truck Fix and Husker Diesel are in communities that are by now disproportionately impacted by pollution. Also, R.T.R. Roger’s Truck Mend is in St. Louis County, which is an ozone non-attainment spot, that means that it does not meet up with the CAA nationwide ambient air high quality common for ozone.
Tampering with motor vehicle engines, like installation of aftermarket defeat gadgets meant to bypass maker emissions controls, final results in appreciably higher releases of nitrogen oxides and particulate make a difference, both of those of which contribute to critical general public health and fitness troubles in the United States. These challenges incorporate untimely mortality, aggravation of respiratory and cardiovascular illness, aggravation of present asthma, acute respiratory signs or symptoms, persistent bronchitis, and decreased lung perform. Numerous scientific studies also connection diesel exhaust to amplified incidence of lung most cancers.
Halting aftermarket defeat gadgets for cars and engines can assistance shield vulnerable communities and reduce ozone-forming pollutant emissions. EPA determined this as one of six Countrywide Compliance Initiatives announced in 2019 and is a best precedence for the Company.
Study much more about the EPA’s National Compliance Initiatives.
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