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 Editorials | Environmental | March 2005 
Pilot Study to Measure Mexican Truck Emissions
 Dina Cappiello - Houston Chronicle
Officials hope to detect the effects on air quality under NAFTA.
| Already many border cities suffer from poor air quality, particularly the soot and fine particles released by the millions of diesel-fueled trucks that cross the border into the U.S. and Mexico every year.
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Nogales, Ariz. - Trucks waiting in line to cross the Mexican border into Nogales will have more than their loads inspected and paperwork checked in coming weeks.
On the sidelines, U.S. and Arizona environmental officials will be testing the pollution coming from their exhaust pipes — pollution that locals say creates a daily haze over the Mariposa Port of Entry here, one of the busiest truck crossings along the 2,000-mile-long border.
The study will take place over the next three weeks at the peak of the produce season and will test 1,200 trucks each day in the first hundred yards of their U.S. journey.
The hope is to quantify — for the first time — how much pollution is coming from Mexican trucks so U.S. officials have a better idea of what will happen to air quality in border cities and states when the trucks are allowed beyond the 20-mile border zone, as envisioned by the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The border opening is delayed by negotiations between the two countries over safety inspections.
"In a matter of seconds we are able to capture a snapshot of the vehicle's exhaust," said Niranjan Vescio, the general manager for Environmental Systems Products, the company that supplied the technology which is used in Texas' motor vehicle inspections. Vescio demonstrated the equipment to a group of officials from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada last week.
What worries some U.S. officials and environmentalists is the pollution the trucks may bring along with their produce.
Already many border cities suffer from poor air quality, particularly the soot and fine particles released by the millions of diesel-fueled trucks that cross the border into the U.S. and Mexico every year.
The permanent traffic jam that already exists at many border crossings is predicted to get worse when Mexican trucking companies can haul loads further than border cities such as Nogales, where storage warehouses outnumber homes and empty lots are cluttered with trailers waiting for U.S. trucks to continue the journey.
But when the border is completely open to Mexican trucks, the concern is that the additional pollution could make the air dirtier in cities like Houston, with their own home-grown pollution problems. Environmentalists have contended that Mexican trucks could make it more difficult to control smog here, and could cause Houston to violate the U.S. soot standard, which the city now just meets.
Last year, 5.5 million trucks entered the U.S. or Mexico at 15 crossings along the Texas border. More than half of those occurred in Laredo.
"It's a significant issue for the Houston community, given its difficulty in meeting the Clean Air Act," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, executive director of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
"There are significantly different standards between the U.S. and Mexican fleets."
The debate thus far has largely been based on anecdotal evidence. While Mexican trucks tend to be older, and the country has more lax environmental standards than the United States, there is little data on how much Mexican trucks pollute, since there is no emissions testing at border crossings.
Trucking companies and pro-trade groups say there will be no impact.
"Mexican trucks traveling into the U.S. will have no more impact on air quality than U.S. trucks," said Thomas Trueblood of the International Truck & Engine Corp. in testimony before federal transportation officials in Houston last year.
The pilot project under way in Arizona will generate the first actual numbers.
"It's no secret that there are environmental pollution problems in sister cities along the border. They serve as the funnel for cargos and loads into and out of the U.S.," said Placido Dos Santos, Border Programs Manager at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
"But we see multiple license plates, we see multiple flags. It's not easy to point the finger at one country or another. We need facts here."
Those facts will immediately help border cities control their pollution and prepare for the increase in truck traffic predicted by the border's opening.
But the information will also help inland cities brace for the impact of Mexican trucks should they come their way.
"Having a better understanding of emissions ... before traffic volume expands considerably will help ... border states address the pollution," said Marrylin Zaw-Mon, a director in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Transportation and Air Quality.
What effect the experiment will have on whether the border is eventually opened is another matter — in June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the environmental impacts of letting trucks across the border did not have to be evaluated.
Since then, the U.S. Department of Transportation has stopped work on a study looking into the toll the trucks will have on the U.S. environment.
"Our obligation is from a safety point of view," said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the federal agency.
"Mexican trucks must meet U.S. safety standards before crossing the border."
Turmail said that while the DOT has suspended its environmental review, anecdotal information suggests that Mexican trucks making long trips will be newer and cleaner than the rest of the fleet and only two to three years older than their U.S. counterparts.
Pro-trade groups say that the data being collected on the Arizona border will prove it.
"The argument that trucks from Mexico are either unsafe or environmentally unsound will be rebuffed by the data gathered by this experiment," said Garrick Taylor of the Border Trade Alliance, as he watched trucks rumble across the border and through the testing equipment Friday.
"The idea that throngs of Mexican trucks are revving their engines and about to make a run for Nebraska" fails to understand how border trade works, he said. |
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