Abstract

CARDONA PAREJA, Raúl Alexander; FLOREZ LOPEZ, Luz Matilde; SILVA ARROYAVE, Sandra Milena  and  ARANGO PEREZ, Isabel Cristina. Environmental analysis and technical mechanical burden trucks and public sector in the Metropolitan Area of Valle de Aburrá. Rev. P+L [online]. 2010, vol.5, n.1, pp.75-94. ISSN 1909-0455.

Introduction. It is a vital matter for the Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá to make alliances with the region´s economy sectors, in order to work on strategies to help to improve environmental quality in the zone and to have a responsible management of natural resources. There fore, the Área Metropolitana of the Valle de Aburrá has been executing projects that not only inform and create consciousness among those people and sectors involved, but also to create sustainable development, keeping in mind the social difficulties and the obligation to minimize harmful environmental impacts related to economic activities. As transportation is one of the priority sectors to decontaminate the Aburrá Valley, a continuous and consistent work has been done by means of technical and mechanical diagnoses, advisory and a follow up to 1000 vehicles with a weight above 3,5 tons and activated by diesel, and to 5800 buses that circulate in the Aburrá Valley. This is done in order to have a base which can allow environmental authorities to diagnose weaknesses and strengths under environmental terms. Objective. To implement best practices for the environment and to execute strengthening and follow up actions for the cleaner production plan in the public passengers and cargo transportation at the Aburrá Valley,in such a way that a reduction of this sector´s emissions is achieved. Materials and methods. Environmental follow up activities were made in companies that previously had diagnoses concerning the subject, aiming to give them advice for the implementation of cleaner production strategies, maintenance plans and courses about environmental laws, among other topics. Opacity tests were practiced at the beginning of the project and after developing activities for the environmental consolidation in the companies that use public transportation diesel vehicles for passengers and cargo. Results. From the total number of cargo vehicles revised (2309) 56,6% meets the opacity limits, while a 43,4% was rejected. From public vehicles for passengers’ transportation, 70,37% was within the limits and 29,63% was out of the rank. Conclusions. Both passengers and cargo public transportation vehicles evidenced that an urgent necessity to implement preventive and correction maintenance programs exists, and also that a culture of prevention must be consolidated.A lack of garages,tools and maintenance machinery is remarked,and also a lack of people trained to make such maintenance in the companies.There is a partial or total ignorance among the owners and drivers about the failures and minimum requirements of their vehicles, plus wrong driving practices and problems with the maintenance made by third parties. In general, it can be said that cargo transporters are open minded about the cleaner production programs Área Metropolitana del Valle de Aburrá impulse, but passengers´ transporters resist a change that must be made in order to achieve an environmental improvement.

Keywords : cleaner production; opacity tests; cargo transportation; public transportation; air emissions.

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