School buses in St. Louis, Missouri, are being retrofitted with crankcase ventilation filters to capture diesel emissions and keep pollution out of passenger cabins.
In South Dakota and Mississippi, older buses are being replaced with cleaner models, while others are being fitted with new heaters to reduce toxic emissions and conserve fuel.
In Michigan, eight neighboring districts are receiving two hybrid electric buses and 10 new buses that meet 2010 emission standards, while another 41 buses are being retrofitted with particulate filters and closed crankcase controls.
And in San Diego, all but 7 of the 519 buses serving the city's unified school district have been retrofitted with advanced diesel particulate filtration.
Meanwhile, the National School Transportation Association received $2.4 million over the summer to replace 98 older buses in Wisconsin and install 26 new heaters on buses in four districts Minnesota.
In all, the federal stimulus package approved this year has earmarked roughly $6 million to the cause of cleaning up the nation's aging fleet of school buses.
Researchers have linked diesel exhaust from older buses with asthma, heart disease and cancer, and studies have found that pollution inside the buses can be worse than levels found outside on the street.
And studies show kids are more vulnerable to the pollution than adults.
To help cut down on this pollution, the EPA has established goals to eliminate unnecessary idling, update buses with better emission controls, fuel them with cleaner-burning fuels, and finally, to replace the oldest buses in the fleet with new, cleaner models.
Overall, the stimulus allotted the National Clean Diesel Campaign (NCDC) a total of $300 million. Of that, the National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program received $156 million to fund competitive grants across the nation. The stimulus package also included $20 million for the National Clean Diesel Emerging Technology Program grants and $30 million for the SmartWay Clean Diesel Finance Program grants.
For more information on the EPA's Clean School Bus USA program, click here.
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