MassDEP Program Cleans up School Bus Emissions at Bay Path Regional

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) announced today that four school buses at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton received pollution control equipment as part of a MassDEP initiative to reduce the tailpipe emissions of diesel school buses owned by regional vocational technical school systems.

Janice Gendreau (left), Transportation Coordinator for Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical School, joins Kevin Brumhead, of Kevin's Truck & Equipment Repair, as he works to install diesel retrofit filters on school buses used by the Charlton school. Kevin Brumhead, of Kevin's Truck & Equipment Repair, slides under the vehicle's engine as he prepares to install diesel retrofit filters on school buses at the Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical School in Charlton.

Bay Path is the first regional vocational technical school system to receive the retrofit equipment through a $120,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Northeast Diesel Collaborative Emissions Reduction-School Bus Retrofit Program. Another school system, South Shore Regional Vocational Technical School in Hanover, is expected to retrofit its buses before the start of school in September.

"The EPA-funded program complements our MassCleanDiesel program, which seeks to retrofit up to 5,500 school buses statewide. We appreciate the funding assistance provided by the EPA for this part of the program," said MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt. "Under both the EPA program and MassCleanDiesel, the retrofits will remove a significant amount of pollutants, making it a healthier ride to school for hundreds of thousands of students."

Under the EPA-funded program, Bay Path's four buses each received a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and crankcase ventilation (CCV) system. DOCs, which function like catalytic converters in the engine exhaust system, reduce tailpipe emissions. CCVs, which are installed in the engine, reduce blow-by gases from the engine into a bus's interior.

Together the two add-on components reduce emissions of fine PM (PM that is 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less) by 40 percent, hydrocarbons (HC) by 60 percent, and carbon monoxide (CO) by 60 percent. PM has been implicated in the state's rising asthma rates and is considered a probable carcinogen. HC helps form ground-level smog and exposure to this pollutant is associated with increased hospital admissions for respiratory distress, such as bronchitis.  Exposure to CO may cause headaches, nausea and death. 

Kevin's Truck & Equipment Repair, a Middleborough subcontractor working for Shuster Corporation, recently performed the installation at Bay Path's campus. Shuster Corp., a national vendor of retrofit equipment located in New Bedford, is one of several vendors under state contract selected to install retrofits on buses across the Commonwealth. 

Located atop Muggett Hill in Charlton, Bay Path serves over 1,000 students from Auburn, Charlton, Dudley, North Brookfield, Oxford, Paxton, Rutland, Spencer, Southbridge, and Webster. Two of the buses serve commuting students from Southbridge, a third serves Charlton students, and a fourth is a spare bus that is used for back-up student transportation. All four buses are also used to transport students on field trips and sports events and to serve as the late bus for after-school transportation.

The EPA-funded school bus retrofit program supports MassDEP's clean diesel strategy to reduce fine PM in Massachusetts - a strategy that includes state funding to retrofit all eligible Massachusetts school and transit buses, enforcement of the state's anti-idling regulation, contract requirements to retrofit off-road engines used in state-funded construction projects, and regulations requiring strict emission standards for a range of diesel vehicles.

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