Reprieve for rice growers

In the midst of a national recession and credit crisis, Mid-Valley rice farmers are counting at least one development as good fortune — an extension on new truck pollution rules they say could save them tens of thousands of dollars in the next decade.

California's Air Resources Board last month tightened emissions standards for diesel-powered commercial trucks. But extensions advocated by farming advocates will win some vehicle owners more time to buy trucks meeting the standards — as much as 13 years in some cases.

State standards taking effect next year will lower the legal amount of soot and nitrogen oxides from diesel engine exhaust in commercial trucks. But farmers' agencies such as the California Rice Commission initially balked, saying the restrictions would weigh too heavily on landowners' trucks that receive intense but very brief use — only a month or so, and then exclusively to take produce and grains to mills, canneries and processing plants.

More than a year of negotiations with the air resources board carved out a looser schedule for those whose diesel-fueled trucks roll up fewer than 10,000 miles a year. Those vehicles can remain on California roads until between 2017 and 2023.

Such delays will allow owners of small farms to continue buying used trucks for deliveries — a common practice because of their low annual mileage and cheaper prices, according to Paul Buttner, the Rice Commission's environmental affairs manager.

"Because we have the extra time, (farmers) can go into the marketplace in 2018 or 2020 and find 8-, 9-, 10-year-old compliant trucks," he said, estimating truck owners could save up to $40 million before the last current farm trucks leave state roads.

"The four trucks we have can be used 10 years or more, because they sit for 11 months of the year," said Charlie Mathews, a rice farmer in Yuba County's District 10.

Without access to more affordable vehicles "we'd have to go out and have someone do the hauling for us — and that's hard to do because it's such a short season with a shortage of available trucks."

Although the extension doesn't single out one crop, farm owners said rice growers may have the most to gain. About 70 percent of rice-delivery vehicles would stay under the 10,000-mile limit and be eligible for the program, the Rice Commission said last week.

For Joe Carrancho of Maxwell, the extension on emission rules may be what's needed to keep some smaller landholders growing crops.

"A new truck might have cost me $90,000 or $110,000," said Carrancho. "My thought had been that I'd fold — run the business until the last minute and fold, because I could not afford to go out and buy two more trucks. And I'm sure many of my neighbors are in the same boat."

Appeal-Democrat reporter Howard Yune can be reached at 749-4708 or at hyune@appealdemocrat.com.