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Kansas Department of Health and Environment Project Receives $343,000 to Reduce Diesel Emissions in Wichita and Kansas City

Release Date: 11/02/2011
Contact Information: David Bryan, 913-551-7433, bryan.david@epa.gov

Environmental News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Kansas City, Kan., Nov. 2, 2011) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $343,450 to Kansas Department of Health & Environment to retrofit 59 Kansas City, Kan. School District buses and replace diesel construction equipment used by the City of Wichita earlier than normal. The EPA grant is part of a $762,170 project with the remaining funding coming from other sources. A diesel oxidation catalyst uses a chemical process to break down diesel engine pollutants in the exhaust stream, turning them into less harmful components. Fuel-operated heaters prevent the bus driver from having to run the school bus at idle for long periods of time.

Two pieces of construction equipment used by the City of Wichita will be replaced, and engines on two additional vehicles will be repowered. Replacing vehicles or equipment with uncontrolled engines, with a new vehicle or equipment provides significant improvements in emissions, fuel efficiency, reliability, and maintenance costs.

EPA has awarded $50 million for clean diesel projects as part of its ongoing campaign to reduce harmful emissions in the air and better protect people's health. These efforts will replace, retrofit or repower more than 8,000 older school buses, trucks, locomotives, vessels, and other diesel powered machines. Reducing emissions from existing diesels provides cost-effective public health and environmental benefits while supporting green jobs at manufacturers, dealerships and businesses across the country.

Diesel engines emit 7.3 million tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 333,000 tons of soot annually. Diesel pollution is linked to thousands of premature deaths, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks and millions of lost work days. While EPA's standards significantly reduce emissions from newly manufactured engines, clean diesel projects funded through these grants will work to address the more than 11 million older diesel engines that continue to emit higher levels of harmful pollution.