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Jordan School District receives $350,000 EPA Clean School Bus grant

Release Date: 10/22/2003
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Denver -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that a Salt Lake Clean Cities Coalition project is one of 17 grant recipients nationwide to receive funding through EPA's Clean School Bus USA initiative. The project, called the Wasatch Front Clean School Bus initiative, will receive the $350,000 grant to assist the Jordan School District in the purchase of 10 new buses that will run on compressed natural gas.

The Jordan School District is the largest school district in Utah. Its 244 buses transport 20,500 children daily and log approximately three million miles every year. The district already has 20 compressed natural gas buses in their fleet. The EPA funds will allow the district to purchase 10 more in the next two years. The new buses will replace the district's oldest, most polluting diesel-fueled buses.

The EPA Clean School Bus USA initiative is an effort that aims to reduce children's exposure to diesel exhaust across the United States by: (1) encouraging policies and practices to eliminate unnecessary school bus idling; (2) installing effective emission control systems on newer buses; and (3) replacing the oldest buses in the fleet with new ones.

"Our goal is that by 2010, every school bus in America will be a 'clean bus' emitting less pollution," said EPA Acting Administrator Marianne Horinko. "Cleaner buses and cleaner air mean fewer respiratory ailments, fewer school days lost to illness and a brighter, healthier future for all our kids."

The competition for the grants was intense. EPA received 120 applications for projects.

"We picked 17 that offered opportunities to highlight innovative solutions we could share with school districts and pollution control agencies throughout the nation," said Horinko. "Some -- like the Jordan School District project -- provide funds to purchase new buses that are up to six times cleaner than the older models they replace. Others involve retrofittng buses, while others entail a switch to ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel."

More information about Clean School Bus USA and the complete list of grantees can be found at