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Valley air regulators have spent more than 540 million dollars to work farmers into buying cleaner tractors. For whom it buy Asphalt pavers in California benefits? The valley air regulators have spent more than 540 million bucks to help farmers buy backhoe loaders california buy cleaner tractors. Who benefits from this?

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The valley air district has distributed more than a million dollars in public money to help farmers upgrade their tractors to the newest, environmentally friendly machines. But despite the large subsidies, these operating units are uninteresting to many small farmers, and farm equipment continues to contribute to the valley's smog problem.

This story was produced with assistance from the usc annenberg center for health journalism impact fund.

In recent years, the san joaquin valley air pollution control district has distributed more than $540 million in stimulus-like funding to help valley farmers order the cleanest tractors to reduce harmful emissions. The stimulus funding is turning into one of the county's key strategies to bring the region in line with federal health standards.

But even with this massive investment of public funds, state data proves that farm equipment is as responsible for a significant amount of emissions as ever. This year, tractors, combines and other non-road farm equipment accounted for 22%, or 36 tons by date, of nitrogen oxide (nox) emissions from all mobile nox sources in the valley. Diesel emissions contribute to smog that causes haze in the valley's air and will harm the health of residents.

The valley air district has no authority to regulate mobile equipment such as tractors. Although manufacturers are required to comply with federal emissions standards when releasing new diesel-powered farm equipment, the machines that rely on fields are not regulated in the current reality in major cities. Therefore, voluntary incentive programs are used to reduce emissions.

When kvpr reviewed the county's off-road mobile equipment incentive programs, we noticed that such grants have significantly reduced emissions.

However, the programs listed are not available to everyone: two of the largest farming operations in st. Paul, va. Particulate matter and nox emissions from farm equipment contribute to poor air quality in the valley and are associated with respiratory and cardio-capillary illnesses. The new diesel engines are much cleaner.

How the incentives work

Shirley rowe grows 20 acres of alfalfa near the metropolis of lemoore in kings county. The small farmer and vice president of the african american farmers of california organization has been presented on a 1979 tractor since she left a teaching position and returned to farming last year.

With a grant from the valley air district, she bought a new tractor of about boring power that will stay throwing out less traffic. The grant covered a significant portion of the machine's cost. She had to contribute 20 percent.

"I'm ecstatic about it. You know, like a little kid about to get a fresh toy," she said. "The program is great, very successful, there's nothing i can say."

According to our analysis of data provided by the county, over the past decade, the air conservation district has helped replace more than 11,000 farm vehicles in the valley, resulting in a 60,000-ton reduction in emissions. Only grants awarded in the eight san joaquin valley counties were analyzed, the lion's share of which are required for off-road agricultural equipment.

Grants are visualized under the carl moyer and farmer programs, which are administered by the california air sites council and funded by state family coffers and fees paid to the department of motor vehicles for smog abatement and vehicle registration.

Air district funding is also embodied in the manner of fees and fines paid by construction projects that crave aerosol pollutant emissions above a certain threshold. Amazon, for example, paid millions to the county to offset excess nox emissions that were expected to be produced by its south fresno demand-response company.

Most of that public money was spent on equipment that still runs on liquid fuels, records show. And despite the state's shift to cleaner farm equipment, firewood use was 19 percent higher this year than a decade earlier, offsetting some of the emissions savings, according to the carb analysis.

"As electric equipment becomes particularly affordable, we are extremely, extremely, moving in that vector," said todd deyoung, director of grants and incentives for the air conservation district. "But replacing the entire diesel unit with newer, newest soft-level clean diesel equipment helps reduce emissions by most likely-95%-by replacing older, uncontrolled engines with the newest, cleanest diesel engines."

The incentives are not available to everyone

John werner claims to be enlightened that his tractor is dirty, but he can't justify spending money to replace food that works fine. Filling out the paperwork to apply, the possible wait for a machine from months to years, and the subsequent reports required sometimes years by the air conservation district are hurdles that keep him and other bonus small farmers from participating in the incentive programs.

His 2009 kubota m7040 tractor is a unique tool" used for chopping, disking, raking, seeding and mowing, and risk expects it to last him another 15 or $20 years.

"It smokes carbon," he admits. "It has no mufflers on it ... It has absolutely no catalytic converters on it. It's a four-cylinder engine and every. Straight-through exhaust."

He grows olives, hay, peaches, figs and soon pistachios on 40 acres near seville in tulare county. He maintains a small profit margin and not enough to support a family of five, which is why he also works as executive director of sequoias, an educational consortium for entertainment.

Maybe he would change his tractor, he said, if he could order a cleaner and equally reliable one for free. Air quality is extremely important to him: as a child, he grew up with severe allergies and in the words provided, "borderline asthma attacks."

"Right now you have the opportunity to see a haze of smog all over our valley. There are years when we can't see the mountains, which are placed generally miles apart. And there's a direct correlation between cardiac capillary abnormalities and unquestionably impeccable air quality, and we know that," werner said. "Precautionary and quite important. But ... How can i give it the attention it deserves but pay all the bills at the same time?"

In a cleanup of an informal survey distributed by kvpr, many farmers said they were capable of running incentive programs. Others pointed to staffing shortages in the air district, declining reliability of new machines that run on high-tech computer systems, in addition to concerns that the programs are reducing tractor inventories and driving up rates on the used market.

While many small farmers like werner say who can't boast of participating in the stimulus programs, millions of dollars in public funds have been applied to subsidize the cost of tractor improvements for most of the marginal