Ramon Cerdas makes a modest living for his family as a trucker hauling cargo in and out of the Port of Oakland. He sometimes waits hours in line to enter the gates, and hours at a terminal to pick up or drop off a load. After paying taxes, gas, insurance and other expenses, he's left with enough to pay the rent and necessities, but not much more.

But worse than that is the reality that on New Year's Day, Cerdas and about 1,000 other truckers — nearly a third of the drivers who serve the Port — could be out of work.

Cerdas, 38, got a piece of unwelcome news this week: a rejection letter from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District informing him that a $22 million grant fund is depleted and there is no money to help him buy a $21,000 diesel filter for his truck. Without the filter, Cerdas will be turned away at the gates.

Starting Jan. 1, all diesel drayage trucks serving the Port of Oakland — from 2,000 to 3,000 — must comply with strict air quality regulations enacted by the state Air Resources Board. Trucks with engines manufactured before 1994 are banned. Truck engines manufactured from 1994 through 2003 must have new filters installed to trap dangerous particulate emissions that put West Oakland residents, and the truck drivers themselves, at greater risk for asthma and cancer. Newer trucks have a few more years to comply.

The grant fund was

established from local, state and federal sources to help drivers buy and install the filters, which cost from $14,000 to $21,000. The truck owners had to pay the sales tax, and the filters are only good for four years. The fund was also used to award $50,000 grants toward the purchase of new rigs, which typically cost more than $100,000 each.

The fund was not nearly enough. The air district stopped accepting applications Sept. 10, but as it turns out, two-thirds of the grant recipients submitted their applications last year. The applications submitted this year were granted on a first-come, first-serve basis, said Cynthia Marvin, assistant division chief for the Air Resources Board, and few applications turned in beyond May or June were successful.

As of Monday, 815 retrofit contracts had been awarded and 880 rejection letters had been sent to drivers who applied for the filter grants, with more letters on the way, said Ralph Borrmann, spokesman for the air district.

The agency was expected to fund 190 new truck replacement grants at $50,000 each, from among 274 applications submitted last year. They must wait for final approval, expected soon, before they can order their new trucks from the dealer. That leaves about 80 truckers who will have to scramble to get loans or risk getting shut out Jan. 1.

Borrmann said it's unlikely additional funds will be identified this year.

"We're always looking for more funds to reduce air quality hazards, but we don't have any on the immediate horizon," Borrmann said.

Marvin said there is a possibility of more state funding for drayage trucks in the future, once money can be raised from state bond sales authorized by Proposition 1B, the Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality and Port Security Act of 2006. Given the state's financial picture, it was impossible to predict when that might happen, she said.

That is bad news for Cerdas, of Berkeley. His family owned a 1986 model truck that would have been banned starting Jan. 1. They could not afford to buy a new rig, even if they had qualified for a $50,000 grant, so they scraped together enough money to buy a used truck, a 1995 model, which at least qualified for a filter grant. He applied in August, and just found out there is no money left to help him.

"They are telling us we can buy our own filter, they recommend that, but it's not possible," Cerdas said.

He and other drivers complained that the fund might have gone further if the vendors hadn't charged top dollar. The stress of it all, combined with the hours-long lines to pick up or drop off cargo, has him thinking it's not worth it.

"If the filter would have been good for longer, like 10 years, it might be OK, but it's risky to get a $20,000 loan and not have enough work and then have to buy a new filter in four years," Cerdas said. "If there was a guarantee of work it would be different, but now, business is slow, and a lot of businesses are leaving."

Duc Ngoc Doan, 47, of Concord, supports his wife and two young children as an independent trucker hauling freight for the port, which he has been doing for 20 years. He paid $7,000 for a 2000 year model truck to replace an older rig that will be banned Jan. 1 and applied for a filter grant for his newer purchase. He got the dreaded rejection letter instead, telling him the fund was dry.

"I agree with the air rules but this is a big problem for the family," he said Monday afternoon outside the OT-411 Trucker Information Center, where he had gone to seek help and inquire about a loan. "Everything depends on me. I'm really disappointed and depressed, and I don't know what to do. "... After buying that truck and paying insurance and registration and heavy duty tax, I cannot afford to get a loan."

Dung Tran, 35, of Berkeley, is in the same boat. He supports his mother and father and barely makes enough to pay the bills. He borrowed $10,000 from his uncle to buy a newer used truck to replace his 1989 model because it wouldn't be allowed inside the port Jan. 1. He applied for a grant to buy a $21,000 filter for his new used truck. He didn't get it because the fund ran out.

"I got my mom and dad to take care of," he said. "Loan? I'm barely able to pay the bills now. I don't know what I'm going to do; I'm very worried. I thought I would get the money."

As far as the Port of Oakland and regulatory agencies are concerned, the program is a success. Mike Miguel, manager of the ARB's project support section that wrote the truck regulation, said there was never going to be enough money to retrofit all the trucks. But based on the number of grants awarded and the number of truckers who registered their vehicles in a statewide drayage truck registry, there will be enough trucks to handle the cargo Jan. 1. Based on current cargo volumes, which are down because of the economy, about 1,000 to 1,300 trucks are needed, he said.

Port spokesman Roberto Bernardo said he did not expect any disruptions in service at the terminals after Jan. 1. He also said there are "no attempts to secure additional funding at this time."

The new filters, combined with getting older, polluting trucks off the road, should reduce particulate emissions by 85 percent and will go a long way to making the air around the Port of Oakland cleaner and less deadly, said Gennet Paauwe, ARB's deputy communications director.

"Obviously we wish there was enough funding for all the retrofits to be done, however the money that was assembled has and will have a very beneficial impact on public health "... which is what our mission is."

Reach Cecily Burt at 510-208-6441. Read her blog at www.ibabuzz.com/westside.