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News Releases from Region 09

U.S. EPA Awards More than $320,000 to California, Arizona Tribes to Reduce Diesel Emissions

06/21/2017
Contact Information: 
CA: Nahal Mogharabi (mogharabi.nahal@epa.gov)
213-244-1815
AZ: Margot Perez-Sullivan (perezsullivan.margot@epa.gov)
415-947-4149

LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest Region has awarded $321,458 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) funds to two tribes in California and Arizona to reduce emissions from diesel trucks and buses. The grants will fund replacement vehicles for the Gila River Indian Community, near Phoenix, and the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, near Los Angeles.

"Clean diesel technologies not only improve air quality, but advance innovation and support jobs,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt. "These projects will significantly reduce harmful emissions and directly benefit the health of residents.”

The Gila River Indian Community received $154,000 to replace two pre-2007 school buses with similar models with 2015 or newer engines. The school buses are owned by the Sacaton Elementary School District.

The Morongo Band of Mission Indians received more than $167,000 to replace several heavy-duty vehicles. The tribe will replace a 1998 dump truck with a 2016 dump truck and replace a 1997 diesel truck with a 2016 refuse hauler. The new vehicles will have updated particulate filter technologies.

The U.S. EPA's DERA program reduces harmful emissions by funding engine replacements, idle reduction and retrofit technologies to clean up a variety of older diesel engines.

These DERA grants are administered by EPA's West Coast Collaborative, a clean air public-private partnership comprised of EPA’s Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Regions. Since 2008, the EPA DERA program has awarded nearly 690 grants across the U.S. in 600 communities. Many of these projects fund cleaner diesel engines that operate in economically disadvantaged communities where residents suffer from higher-than-average instances of asthma, heart and lung disease. Projects funded to date have reduced emissions from more than 60,000 engines.

To learn more about all of this year's West Coast Collaborative DERA projects, visit: www.westcoastcollaborative.org  

For more information about EPA's National Clean Diesel campaign and the awarded Tribal DERA projects nationally, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel  

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