Ontario Gets Tough on Emissions

Ontario inspectors will check trucks for excessive emissions starting in September.

Photo from Ontario Ministry of the Environment

Ontario will be the first province in Canada to get tough on excessive smoke from truck exhaust stacks in a wide-ranging enforcement effort to combat a growing smog problem.

The Ministry of the Environment wants the exhaust of every heavy-duty truck more than three years old and registered in the province to be measured for excessive pollution at least once a year, starting in September. In addition, all trucks, including those from the United States, face increased attention from a roadside “smog patrol.”

Truckers called the testing — part of the province’s “Drive Clean” initiative — an expensive political ploy that will not catch the worst polluters.

“The program is nothing but an expensive paper tiger that is destined to go up in smoke,” said David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association. “The decision to push forward on this program is purely motivated by the election timetable.”

Truck testing is just one part of Drive Clean. Cars and light trucks registered in certain smog-heavy regions of Ontario have to be checked for excessive emissions every other year. That requirement went into effect April 1.

The heavy truck provision targets vehicles weighing more than 4,500 kilograms (about 9,900 pounds). It requires annual checks of exhaust opacity, following the standards widely used in the U.S.

Opacity tests measure the amount of light that passes through exhaust plume. Darker smoke has more harmful environmental and health effects, officials said.

In the U.S., 10 states now check commercial vehicle emissions. They adhere to standards developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers and endorsed by the Environmental Protection agency, which hoped to encourage uniformity in state regimes. Under the SAE standards, the exhaust of trucks manufactured after 1990 must be no more than 40% opaque. Older vehicles are held to a lower, 55% opacity standard.

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