| July 10, 2009
Largest Grant Ever Awarded to Replace
Region’s Diesel School Buses
The
South Coast Air Quality Management District today awarded nearly $43 million
to help school districts in the Southland purchase clean-burning compressed
natural gas and propane buses to replace the dirtiest diesel school buses in
their fleets.
Also
today, the AQMD awarded more than $3 million to help school districts
retrofit 176 newer diesel school buses with particulate traps to reduce
diesel emissions.
“The number of school buses being replaced or retrofitted with this award
is extraordinary and it’s a giant step toward our goal of cleaning up all
school bus fleets in the region,” said William A. Burke, Ed.D., chairman of
the South Coast Air Quality Management District. “This will help thousands
of school children and their communities breathe a little easier.”
Today’s award will enable 13 school districts across the Southland to
replace 304 model year 1987 and older buses with new, cleaner burning
compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane buses.
The
following table summarizes today’s school bus awards:
|
School District |
No. of Buses |
Fuel Type |
Total Funding Award |
|
Azusa |
2 |
CNG |
$283,048 |
|
Long Beach |
9 |
CNG |
$1,273,716 |
|
Los Angeles |
260 |
CNG |
$36,796,240 |
|
Newhall |
2 |
Propane |
$202,310 |
|
Saugus Union |
2 |
Propane |
$202,310 |
|
Sulphur Springs |
2 |
Propane |
202,310 |
|
William S. Hart |
1 |
Propane |
$101,155 |
|
Westminster |
3 |
CNG |
$424,572 |
|
Jurupa |
1 |
CNG |
$141,524 |
|
Chaffey Joint |
2 |
CNG |
$283,048 |
|
Chino Valley |
7 |
CNG |
$990,668 |
|
Redlands |
1 |
CNG |
$141,524 |
|
Rim of the World |
12 |
CNG |
$1,698,288 |
Alternative-fueled school buses are substantially cleaner than the older
diesel buses they replace. In addition, these buses emit no diesel soot,
which is the source of about 84 percent of all air pollution cancer risk in
the region.
Funding for today’s bus replacements is provided through Proposition 1B
approved by voters in November 2006 and the state’s Carl Moyer Program.
AQMD has been a leader in providing incentives to help replace older diesel
school buses with cleaner buses. Since 2000, AQMD has approved more than
$152 million to replace over 930 older diesel school buses with cleaner
models and retrofit 2,991 newer diesel buses with particulate traps.
In other action today,
the AQMD Board:
- Awarded
$269,925 to Pacific Stihl to conduct AQMD’s fourth annual Leaf Blower
Exchange Program to exchange 1,500 older, highly polluting backpack leaf
blowers for new, low-polluting and lower noise models. Exchange events will
be held late this summer in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and
Riverside counties.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
-#-
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