South Coast Fleet Rules Enforced for Private
School Bus Fleets

By Ryan Gray | Senior Editor

DIAMOND BAR, Calif. - Are school bus operations becoming extinct?

California pupil transportation departments are asking that very question, amid the South Coast Air Quality's (SCAQMD) Aug. 1 re-implementation of its controversial Clean Fleet Rules for private fleets, including contractor owned and operated school buses.

SCAQMD enforces Rule 1195 "as it applies to private school bus fleet operators under contract to a public entity, so long as such entity is not a federal agency." The SCAQMD added it will not enforce the rule on private school bus fleet operators not under contract to a school district or any other state or local public entity.

In May, a federal district court upheld a previous 9 th Court of Appeals ruling that validated requirements on heavy duty fleets in Southern California to only upgrade to alternative-fuel vehicles when purchasing or leasing anew. It signaled a go-ahead for SCAQMD to re-enforce the rules, which were suspended a year earlier when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they violated Section 209 of the Clean Air Act, namely that no state or political subdivision could adopt an air quality standard that supersedes federal regulations.

The opposition, headed by the Engine Manufacturers Association (EMA), argued that SCAQMD is a government regulator and has no business telling school districts what clean vehicles to purchase. Federal district court Judge Florence Marie Thompson disagreed, setting the stage for SCAQMD's July 27 announcement. Spokesman Joe Suchecki said the EMA will appeal the decision, but at press time its attorneys had yet to determine whether they would appeal to Judge Thompson or the 9 th Circuit Court of Appeals.

"You can't create a rule without funding it. Let us replace buses and quit playing politics," said Kirk Hunter, CEO of Southwest Transportation Agency, a joint powers authority representing five school districts near Fresno. "The bottom line here is you have the safest thing on the road; even the old diesel spewing buses are safer than mom's car. It's about the money and it's about the irresponsibility of making the yellow bus extinct to make it 'safer.'"

As a state, California only transports about 11 percent of all students to school, he added last in the nation. But the Clean Fleet Rules are poised to kill pupil transportation operations at smaller, poorer rural districts, like those serviced by Southwest Transportation, which Hunter said buses between 50 and 90 percent of the areas students.

"(If) The bus doesn't run, the kids don't come to school because they can't," he said. "When you legislate by emotion you get some stupid laws."

The California Air Resources Board was to decide on Sept. 14 whether or not to implement SCAQMD's regulations into the state code and open up the rules for interpretation in other air quality districts.

The California Association of School Transportation Officials said it makes no sense to force schools to purchase new alternative fuel buses with health benefits are not proven to be any better than diesel, especially at the expense of student safety.

" "Clearly, the school bus replacement rate under the CNG-only regulation in the SCAQMD has not been what officials had predicted," said Alexandra Robinson, the association's president and transportation director for San Diego Unified School District. "As a result of their rule, many districts in the South Coast are keeping older buses on the road or cutting back on service, meaning more students are driving to schools; this in turn , increases emissions and congestion and creates transportation conditions which are less than safe."

Larger school districts up north are also scratching their heads. Dennis Garden, transportation director at San Francisco Unified School District, said CNG rules are problematic because the lack of alternative fuel vehicles for special needs.

"Those were some of the things that came to the forefront in our (school board) discussions," he said. "If we have part diesel and part CNG you have to run to entirely different systems."

That includes the infrastructure of new fueling stations and mechanics certified to work on CNG buses. The only alternative is to ignore the safety of the yellow school bus and turn over student travel to parents.

"It's one thing to say, 'OK we're going to pay for the vehicle, but it doesn't pay the differential in the cost between CNG and the cost of diesel," Garden added. "Who's going to make up this cost to the district? Or are you going to close buses and make all parents drive? Then you have parents idling in front of the school. What is that going to create around the kids? Districts are caught between a rock and a hard place."

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is currently holding public hearings to determine if the Clean Fleet Rules should be added to the state code. But Darryl Gaslan, manager of CARB's Southern California Heavy Duty Diesel Enforcement Section, told STN EXPO 2005 attendees that 2007 and 2010 EPA diesel engine requirements and reduced-idling programs together can virtually eliminated smoke and odor from the tailpipe.

"Diesel engines have come a long way and have a lot of life," he said. "Don't write them off.

Judy Lewis, Gaslan's counterpart in northern California, said at STN EXPO 2005 that school districts have a wide array of grant funding programs available to them for the cost of switching over to CNG. But Hunter said grants to school districts are tantamount to heroin.

"The first dose is free but once he's got you hooked you pay dearly for the rest," he explained. "School districts have been underfunded for so long we've had to resort to taking whatever we can grab. We'll try anything to keep the bus on the road. Fund us or shut us down but don't leave us bobbing out here in the ocean with a life vest."

Source: School Transportation News, September 2005. All rights reserved.