The Willapa Valley School District is one of nine school districts in Washington, Oregon and Idaho to be awarded federal funds for use in the upgrade of old diesel engines in school buses.
In those three states, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency doled out $491,000 in order to retrofit or replace older diesel motors that are known to be a major source of air pollutants. The funds will be provided as rebate through the EPA’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program. The national program has a total of $8.7 million in rebates available to be used to upgrade the motors in 450 school buses in 32 states. Willapa Valley is set to receive $20,000 from the program.
“These rebates are an innovative way to improve air quality and provide kids with safe, reliable transportation to and from school,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick in a press release. “Through the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, EPA is equipping these local school districts with cleaner-running school buses, helping them along the route to healthier kids and communities in the Northwest.”
The amount of money made available to each school district depends on the types of engines that need work. Engine models dating back to 2006 and before are eligible for rebates between $15,000 and $20,000 per bus, depending on the size of the vehicle. Another Option is to retrofit school buses with engines that date from 1994 to 2006 with a diesel oxidation catalyst, a closed crankcase ventilation system, and fuel operated heater in order to reduce emissions. The EPA is prepared to pay up to $6,000 total for those three devices.
The EPA has previously implemented regulations intended to make newer diesel bus engines run more than 90 percent cleaner than their predecessors. However, many school districts are still using buses that are more than a decade old. Those older diesel engines are known to emit large quantities of pollutants like nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which have been linked to asthma, lung damage and other serious health problems.
Dating back to 2008 the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act has helped to pay for the upgrade of more than 700,000 school bus engines across the country.
A complete list of the school districts awarded funds in 2017 can be found online at www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/clean-diesel-rebates, and additional information about the DERA program is available at: www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.
