Northern California farmers might have to replace their tractors and other diesel equipment in a few years, because of how bad the air pollution is in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angles basin.

The Butte County Air Quality Management District board got that news last week at the end of a board-requested review of the history of air pollution controls imposed on farmers.

County Air Pollution Control Officer Jim Wagoner told the board the so-called “tractor rules” were the newest and final piece of a series of regulations being developed by the state Air Resources Board to reduce diesel emissions, which have been ruled to be toxic.

The “In-Use, Off-Road Mobile Ag Equipment Regulation” has been in development since this summer, and the current timeline would see them being approved in December 2013.

Wagoner reported the ARB claims it committed to clean up diesel fumes in a 2007 agreement with the federal government over violations of the Clean Air Act.

via Distant air pollution might bite NorCal farmers – Daily Democrat Online.