A federal judge last week ordered the Diesel Brothers, two friends who turned their Utah truck repair and customization business into a Discovery Channel reality show, to pay a fine of $851,451 for removing pollution-control devices from diesel pickups.
The duo — David "Heavy D" Sparks and David "Diesel Dave" Kiley — also may have to pay up to $1.2 million in attorney's fees for a group of doctors that sued them.
U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby ruled that the defendants violated the federal Clean Air Act and Utah law, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. He threatened to hold them in contempt of court for any future removal of diesel-emissions limiters.
Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment sued after buying one of the trucks that Sparks and Kiley modified on an episode of "Diesel Brothers" and having it tested. Shelby's ruling said the truck spewed 36 times more pollution and 21 times more particulate matter than the pollution controls would have allowed.
