WASHINGTON, Reuters Truck engine maker Cummins Inc has agreed in principle to pay a 1.675 billion fine for installing devices on hundreds of thousands of engines to allow them to emit excess pollution, the largestever civil penalty for a Clean Air Act violation, the U.S. Justice Department said on Friday.

The Department said Cummins allegedly installed socalled defeat devices to bypass or disable emissions controls such as emission sensors and onboard computers.

The department said Cummins used defeat devices on 630,000 2013 to 2019 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines and undisclosed auxiliary emission control devices on 330,000 2019 to 2023 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines to cheat emissions control requirements.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said preliminary estimates suggest that defeat devices on some Cummins engines have caused them to produce thousands of tons of excess emissions of nitrogen oxides. It is the second largest environmental penalty deal ever reached, the department said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said vulnerable communities are more likely to reside near highways where these harmful emissions are concentrated, making this agreement critical to advancing our environmental justice agenda.

Cummins said it expects to take a nearly 2.04 billion charge in the fourth quarter to resolve regulatory claims relating to nearly one million engines from the Justice Department and California Air Resources Board.

The company has seen no…