2005 Clean School Bus Awards Announced

TUCSON, Ariz. - U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced 37 demonstration funding projects in 25 states as part of the $7.5 million 2005 Clean School Bus USA program.

Johnson made the announcement as he visited the Tucson Unified School District, Arizona's second largest public school system, which raised an additional $6.5 million to supplement its first Clean School Bus grant of $493,003. The district, which runs a fleet of 308 buses to transport 13,000 students on regular route service over 4.7 million miles annually, will use the money in part to purchase 60 new compressed natural gas (CNG) buses.

South Carolina received the nation's largest award, $499,099, to retrofit approximately 197 buses with idle-reduction devices, retrofit 132 school buses with diesel oxidation catalysts and crankcase filters, replace a dozen 22-year old diesel school buses, and conduct biodiesel and idling-reduction device pilot programs. The award was South Carolina's first under the 3-year-old federal program.

"This grant award marks an exciting new era in school transportation for South Carolina," said State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum. "It will also allow us to begin the process of transitioning toward the use of biodiesel fuel."

School buses drive more than 79 million miles across South Carolina each year and transport approximately 330,000 children every school day.

"Our aging school bus fleet is a problem," Tenenbaum added. "Ideally, we would like to see the General Assembly commit to an annual school bus replacement cycle. But until that commitment is made, we will do the best we can with the resources we have."

The grant also expands the state's new Breathe Better Air at School (B2@ school) project to Marlboro and Oconee County school districts. This program focuses on reducing air pollution at school campuses. Currently Crossroads Middle School in Lexington/Richland School District 5 is piloting a B2@ school program aimed at reducing dismissal time, implementing a no-idling policy for buses and cars in student pick-up lines, promoting community awareness, and increasing participation in air pollution reduction programs. Marlboro County received another $9,000 from Weyerhaeuser Company to install diesel oxidation catalysts and crankcase filters on 21 school buses and Oconee County also will install DOCs and CCFs on 21 buses using $9,000 from Duke Power.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma's Crutcho School District won the state's first Clean School Bus grant worth $69,730 for the replacement of two 1980s buses, the retrofit of one other and B20 for five other buses in its fleet. A complete list of 2005 recipients and a synopsis of all grant projects is available at www.stnonline.com/stn/cleanschoolbus/csb_epademoprojects2005.htm.

Tucson Unified's director of transportation, Bill Ball, said the EPA grant will fund 19 new CNG buses with John Deere 8.1 liter engines. The district will use an additional $4.5 million appropriated from a recent school bond election, $200,000 from a U.S. Department of Energy grant and $70,000 from a positive-message school bus advertising program to fund the other purchases. He added that another $2.5 million is available in the district's soft capital budget.

The overall project goal, taken from the district's Web site, is to replace the oldest 131 buses with new buses as soon as financially possible. Currently, TUSD operates five CNG buses, 34 buses using unleaded fuel and 269 diesel buses; 75 of the oldest were retrofitted with oxidation-reduction catalysts from a 2004 Caterpillar private sector grant worth about $75,000.

Though Tucson and surrounding Pima County are federal attainment areas, Tucson was recently ranked 86th on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation's 2006 list of America's "Most Challenging Places to Live with Asthma."

"Asthma is the No. 1 cause of illness in all of Pima County as well as TUSD," Ball said. "We can and we must make our fleet the cleanest it can possibly be."

Tucson Unified is also negotiating with Madison Elementary School District in Phoenix to trade conventional diesel buses for more CNG vehicles. Ball explained that Madison is a small school district and can no longer afford the CNG infrastructure. He added that state auditors are in the process of evaluating the proposal to make sure the deal is fair to both parties and that local taxpayers remain protected.

"CNG is $25,000 to $30,000 more expensive then regular diesel before (the federal) energy rebate," he said. "That might equalize it some. Less than 200 school districts nationally use CNG and most are in California. These expensive CNGs aren't worth as much used."

Meanwhile NSTA continues to discuss awards for 2006 and beyond with EPA, said industry consultant Robin Leeds. She explained the EPA has proposed to award 2006 grants using existing 2005 applications because of a lack of administrative resources. An EPA spokesperson would not comment on the negotiations citing a federal confidentiality policy.