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El Cajon Grading has been in business since 1972.  We own 21 pieces
of off-road diesel construction equipment and we employ 23 people
whose families depend on us and our survival.

The California Air Resources Board (ARB) is currently considering
the adoption of off-road diesel regulations that, if implemented
as presently drafted, would have a profound, negative impact on
our company and employees, on California’s infrastructure
rebuilding efforts, the health of the state’s construction
industry and its overall economy. 

To be clear: El Cajon Grading is very supportive of reducing
particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions from diesel engines. In
fact, using the Carl Moyer program over the past five years in
Southern California alone, the construction industry has replaced
more than 1,000 high polluting engines, resulting in a reduction
of more than 3,787 tons of pollution every year. 

But the ARB staff proposed rule forces 18 years of changes (as
originally planned in 2000) into only 12 years.  This cannot be
done without laying off employees and could even result in our
company going out of business entirely – which means the loss of
many high-wage jobs. 

We need five more years to allow pending Tier 4 technology to
become available and to allow us to be able to afford such costly
equipment purchases and retrofits.  This will give diesel engine
manufacturers time to catch-up with California’s progressive air
quality standards and help us amortize the massive expense of
purchasing new equipment over a longer period, as our own
equipment lenders are urging.