Air Pollution Control District awards will fund lower-emitting replacements
VENTURA — The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District is distributing $4.57 million to help replace diesel tractors, loaders and other equipment on farms, ranches and wholesale nurseries with lower-emission versions.
Replacement of the 59 pieces of equipment is projected to reduce emissions annually by 713 metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, 34 tons of ozone precursors and 2.4 tons of diesel particulate matter. The district received more than 200 requests for grants and selected the most cost-effective projects in terms of dollars per ton of reduced air pollutants.
The grants are awarded through the state’s Funding Agricultural Replacement Measures for Emission Reductions (FARMER) Program and Carl Moyer Memorial Air Quality Standards Attainment Program. The funding encourages companies to replace their equipment with versions that are cleaner than required by laws or regulations by covering most of the cost.
FARMER guidelines recommend that at least half of funds go to disadvantaged communities and 5% to low-income areas. In this round of FARMER grants, all but one of the 15 pieces of equipment being replaced are used in areas of Oxnard and Fillmore that are designated as either disadvantaged or low-income or both.
The 11 recipients of the FARMER grants are Alex James Cuevas, Ishibashi Farms LLC, Gourmet Specialties Inc., Oceanview Produce LLC, Rancho Harvest Inc., Fortino L. Sanchez, Southland Sod Farms Operations Inc. and United Growers Berry Farms in Oxnard; Coastal Orchard Services and Maria Lopez in Fillmore; and Placco LLC in Somis. Some of the recipients received grants to replace multiple tractors. Placco is replacing a diesel utility terrain vehicle with a zero-emission one.
The Carl Moyer grants are being awarded to 32 businesses to replace 31 tractors, eight loaders, a grader, bulldozer and forklift and to repower two pumps to zero emissions. More than half of the Carl Moyer grants were awarded to replace equipment used in low-income areas, although it is not a requirement.
The Carl Moyer grant recipients are B&A Flowers, Kathleen Ferrante, Nunes Custom Farming, Sierra Pacific Farms Inc./Somis Pacific Ag Management and Jim Thiessen in Somis; Berrington Ranch LLC, Camulos Ranch LLC, Hector A. Lopez, Mejia & Sons Nursery, Pinnacle Farm Labor Inc. and William and Shelly Morris Trust in Fillmore; Boething Treeland Farms Inc., Estanco Inc./Corona’s Nursery, Alice E. Lee, Alejandro Murillo and Enrique Rojas in Moorpark; Brokaw Nursery Inc., Holladay Organics Inc., Jose Luis Morales, Sam Ag Service and Santos Palacios in Santa Paula; Leon Farming, R.N.M Farm LLC and Zendejas Farms in Camarillo; Arnold Meyerstein and Daisy Nevarez in Ventura; Ito Brothers Inc. in Camarillo and Ventura; Mike’s Farm Labor and Monarca Berries Inc. in Oxnard; Julie Munro in Ojai; and Performance Landscape Inc. and Yao Cheng Farm Inc. in Santa Rosa Valley.