News Releases from Region 10

EPA announces $428,000 for Idaho clean diesel projects

Funds will support advanced diesel technology on school buses, tractors and irrigation pumping plants

(Seattle-March 24, 2015) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing over $428,000 in grant funds for Idaho to reduce harmful air pollution from diesel engines. The funds will be used replace old school buses and retrofit old school buses with advanced diesel technology, replace four tractors used in agriculture and convert irrigation pumping plants from diesel to electric power.

"These projects provide advanced diesel technology that supports community health in Idaho," said Dennis McLerran, Regional Administrator for EPA Region 10. "Funding through the Diesel Emission Reduction Act provides an important opportunity to leverage public and private funding for cleaner trucks, buses, boats and heavy equipment."

The Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District is receiving over $349,000 to replace four tractors and three school buses. In addition, the funds will go to convert three irrigation pumping plants from diesel to electric in the Utah-Idaho Cache Valley airshed, an area where air quality is a concern. New clean diesel technology is more than 90 percent cleaner than older, higher emitting diesel engines.

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality is receiving nearly $79,000 to retrofit 24 school buses with idle reduction devices that reduce diesel emissions and save fuel. The school buses will operate in priority areas and airsheds with air quality problems. The project will focus on buses in the Silver Valley of Idaho, where the town of Pinehurst has been designated as non-attainment for National Ambient Air Quality Standards. School bus fleets operate largely in residential areas where children live and school facilities are located. This project will reduce the risk from toxic pollutants by reducing the exposure of school-age children to diesel emissions from school buses.

Of the $8 million awarded nationally, EPA Regions 9 and 10 awarded $2.5 million through the West Coast Collaborative, a partnership of public and private entities in the western states. The $2.5 million will fund eight projects that include school buses, trucks and agricultural equipment that will operate cleaner thru more advanced diesel technology as well as natural gas and electric power alternatives.

Diesel engines are extremely efficient but emit air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NO_X) and particulate matter (PM). These pollutants are linked to a range of serious health problems including asthma, lung and heart disease, other respiratory ailments, and even premature death. Diesel engines also emit black carbon which has been linked to climate change. New diesel and alternative fuel technology can reduce diesel pollution by more than 90 percent.

Since the start of the DERA program in 2008, EPA has awarded over 700 grants across the US in 600 communities. Many of these projects fund cleaner diesel engines that operate in economically disadvantaged communities whose residents suffer from higher-than-average instances of asthma, heart, and lung disease. The DERA program is set to expire in 2016.

For more information about the West Coast Collaborative and EPA region 9 and 10 projects, visit www.westcoastcollaborative.org. For more information about the projects awarded nationally, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel/prgnational.htm