If you're familiar with America's turbo diesel truck culture, you'll be aware of Discovery Channel's Diesel Brothers, who have become famous by modifying trucks of all manner, and turning them into coal-rolling beasts.
While the whole truck scene in America is based on illegally modifying the vehicle's exhaust system to "roll coal", most of it goes unnoticed by local police, unless of course, you have an international TV show centred around it.
If you're not familiar with the concept of rolling coal, it's when a turbo diesel truck is run extremely rich and the exhaust system is cleared of any obstructions. This allows large quantities of unburned diesel to spew out of the exhaust, as the truck does in the video above.
Recently, the show's stars David "Heavy D" Sparks, Joshua Stuart, Keaton Hoskins, and Dave Kiley—a.k.a. "Diesel Dave" were investigated by the Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
After pulling together a case against the brothers, the physicians presented their findings to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Shelby, who imposed the US$851,000 ($1.4 million) fine.
Shelby found the TV show guilty of violating the Clean Air Act and Utah state law by removing the truck of emissions equipment that's legally required. These parts include the diesel particulate filters and exhaust gas recirculation systems.
From the fines, it was ruled that US$761,000 will be paid to the U.S. government, with the remaining $90,000 going to Davis County in Utah. Which seems a small price to pay for the damage done.
While it was claimed that the TV show was "committed to restoring air quality in Utah," the Utah Physicians found the trucks built by the brothers to be extremely over-polluting.
To demonstrate, a truck was purchased from Sparks Motors, and was sent to Denver for emission testing. These test results revealed that the truck emitted 36 times more pollution and 21 times more particulate matter than if it had the correct equipment.
Going forward, the defendants have been banned from removing any diesel emission equipment along with selling any vehicle that has been modified in that manner. Breaching this will find them in contempt of court.