City's diesel vehicle emissions testing a success - public urged to report smoking vehicles

CITY OF CAPE TOWN - MEDIA RELEASE - 20 NOVEMBER 2009

Statement by Councillor James Vos: Chairperson: Health Portfolio Committee, City of Cape Town

Air pollution is an urgent problem as it represents a major health risk to our citizens and creates negative perceptions about Cape Town among tourists and residents alike.

According to the Brown Haze Study of 1997, conducted by The Energy Research Group at the University of Cape Town (M Wicking-Baird et al), diesel vehicle emissions contribute to 48% of the visual degradation of the urban air quality in Cape Town. For this reason it was imperative for the City to establish a diesel vehicle emissions testing programme. In 2000 the Diesel Vehicle Testing Unit, consisting of three teams, was established. With the assistance of the City's Traffic Services and Metro Police the Unit conducts daily emission tests of diesel vehicles at various roadside testing sites.

During the year of the inception of the programme, in 2000, the failure rate was 17%. Since then, there has been a steady decline in the failure rate of vehicles tested. Currently the failure rate is 0.66%. This decrease is due to:

* Visible policing

* Fuel reformulation. The sulphur content in diesel decreased from 5500ppm in 2000 to 500ppm in 2006.

* New engine technology

* Improved maintenance programmes by major fleet owners

The change in the composition of both commercial and private vehicles operating in the city, as the average age of vehicles decreased from 14 years to 12 years since the year 2000.

International research has shown that 20% of vehicles are poorly maintained. Such vehicles contribute to 70% of the total contribution of vehicle smoke (48%) to poor urban air quality.

In line with international trends the City started a programme to gradually decrease the failure threshold for smoking vehicles over a period of time. The current proposal is contained in the draft Air Quality Management By-law which has been made available for public comment.

According to the draft by-law the failure threshold will decrease from 60 Hartridge Smoke Units (HSU) to 50HSU for naturally aspirated compression ignition engines (diesel powered engines) and from 66HSU to 56HSU for turbocharged compression ignition engines. At present, approximately 20% of all diesel vehicles tested register smoke readings above these respective proposed thresholds. These proposed new measures should bring about a further reduction in the level of brown haze in the city.

Within the City of Cape Town, a programme has been established to regularly test all City-owned diesel vehicles for emissions compliance.

In its quest to decrease the number of polluting vehicles on the road, the City has started a programme to test diesel vehicle fleets of major fleet owners free of charge. The emissions testing is carried out at the fleet owners’ premises and affords the owner an opportunity to proactively assess and repair vehicles before they are stopped and summonsed at a roadside testing site. The City also implemented a voluntary roadside testing program in June and members of the public were encouraged, without fear of prosecution, to submit their vehicles for testing.

During the past two years the City has been assisting other local authorities - such as the eThekweni, Nelson Mandela and Sedibeng Municipalities - in implementing diesel vehicle testing programmes. Various workshops were conducted to train officials and guide the management of those municipalities in establishing diesel emissions testing units.

We would like to encourage members of the public to report badly smoking vehicles to the City so that the necessary follow-up action can be implemented to force the owners of these vehicles to carry out the necessary repairs.

Smoking vehicles can be reported to the City’s Air Quality Management Unit during office hours on 021 590 1419. The following information must be supplied when making such a report:

The name of the complainant with contact telephone number
The registration number of the vehicle (not of the trailer being towed)
Make of vehicle
Type of vehicle i.e. truck, bakkie or sedan
The name of the road on which it was travelling
The direction of travel
The area.
Time
Date


We encourage all members of the public to assist us with this important task. Both private and fleet owners of diesel vehicles are requested to ensure that their vehicles are serviced regularly and maintained in a good state of tune at all times so as to contribute positively to improving Cape Town’s air quality.

End

Issued by: Communication Department, City of Cape Town

Media enquiries: Cllr James Vos. Tel: 021 590 1680 Cell: 083 640 7640