Yellow School Buses Go Green: Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Announces Cleaner Air for Washington's School Children

SEATTLE--Oct. 3, 2003--

Thanks to Legislature, state schools will retrofit bus fleets, reducing toxic diesel emissions by 50 percent to 90 percent

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency today announced that it has begun retrofitting school buses in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties to significantly reduce toxic diesel emissions.

These local school bus retrofit projects are part of a statewide effort known as the Washington State Clean School Bus Program. Funding was allocated for this program by the 2003 Washington State Legislature through the passage of ESSB 6072, a bill promoted by the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. The legislation also funds retrofits in other school districts large and small, urban and rural across the state. Washington's is the largest, statewide, state-funded voluntary school bus retrofit program in the country.

Districts beginning projects soon in the Puget Sound area include Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Bremerton, Eatonville, Kent, Northshore, South Kitsap and Tacoma. Around the state, projects will be announced soon in school districts in the Bellingham, Olympia, Spokane, Vancouver and Yakima areas by the local air districts and the Department of Ecology.

ESSB 6072 provided approximately $5 million statewide in its first fiscal year, primarily to begin installing retrofit emission controls on existing diesel school buses. The Legislature has committed to continuing this level of funding for five years to reach approximately 5,000 of more than 9,000 school buses in the state. The program will reach all areas of the state and will leverage additional federal funding in the hope of reaching nearly all school buses and school children in the state.

"Although school buses have proven to be the safest way to transport our children to and from school, reducing bus exhaust emissions will further protect our children," said Dennis McLerran, Executive Director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. "Thanks to strong support from the Washington State Legislature, school buses in Washington State will be low-polluting to protect the health of children who ride them. Parents and students should be proud and grateful to the Legislature for making cleaner-running school buses a priority. School children across the state will be healthier and safer as a result."

Recent studies show diesel exhaust is a harmful pollutant, contributing as much as 70 percent of the cancer risk from air toxics in the Puget Sound area. Children breathe more air relative to their body weight than adults, and their lung systems are not fully developed, making them more sensitive to pollutants in diesel exhaust. Breathing diesel exhaust is responsible for increased cases of asthma, increased hospital admissions and emergency room visits, and increased cancer risk over a lifetime.

Students from Alternative Elementary School #2 in Seattle will give legislators a thank you for prioritizing funding to improve air quality during a tough budget year. State Representative Ed Murray, who led the Legislature in adopting the diesel retrofit legislation during the last session, will receive a thank-you gift representing the Alternative Elementary School #2 students who ride school buses.

"Thanks to intense effort and cooperation by state and local air-quality agencies, the first clean school buses funded by this program will roll out in December of this year," McLerran added. "They will be equipped with advanced emission-control devices and switched to cleaner fuels. We expect over 1,000 buses statewide will emit less pollution by the end of 2004."

The retrofit program for the initial districts in the Puget Sound area has already begun. The buses will be fitted with oxidation catalysts or particulate filters, depending on the age of the buses. These emission control devices, which are somewhat like the catalytic converters on passenger cars, clean the exhaust before it leaves the vehicle.

Particulate filters, which can only be placed on the newest buses and require the use of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, will reduce emissions of fine particles, toxic hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide by more than 90 percent. Oxidation catalysts, when combined with ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, reduce emissions by up to 50 percent to 70 percent, depending on the pollutant measured. Oxidation catalysts used in areas of the state where ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel is not yet available will reduce fine particle emissions by 30 percent and toxic emissions by up to 50 percent.

Retrofit devices cost from $1,500 to $8,000 per bus. The Legislature's funding makes this possible and gives kids cleaner buses to ride.

The US Environmental Protection Agency has mandated strong new standards for diesel fuels and vehicles, to take effect in 2006 and 2007. But because diesel engines have very long lives, school buses are kept in fleets for 12 to 15 years on average. Thus it would be at least 2015 before the state would see significant benefits from the new federal standards. Early voluntary actions like the Washington State Clean School Bus Program make cleaner air for school kids possible much sooner.

The US EPA has announced a similar program nationally called "Clean School Bus USA" and has helped the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency develop its retrofit programs with grant funding and technical assistance. EPA-funded pilot retrofit projects for school buses have already been completed in Everett, North Kitsap and Chief Leschi, a Puyallup Tribal school.

The retrofit program for school buses is a component of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's Diesel Solutions program, an award-winning, voluntary initiative to retrofit diesel vehicles in private and public fleets and increase use of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel in western Washington.

About the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency (www.pscleanair.org) works to protect and enhance air quality for citizens in King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties by enforcing federal, state and local air quality regulations and promoting voluntary and incentive-based programs. The agency was established by state law in 1967. The Clean Air Agency's jurisdiction spans 6,300 square miles and is home to more than 3.5 million people -- more than half the state's population. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency works in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington State Department of Ecology, industry, local jurisdictions and private citizens.