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Governor Patrick and MassDEP Launch MassCleanDiesel, a New Program to Reduce Air Pollution from School Buses
Gov. Deval Patrick announces the MassCleanDiesel school bus retrofit program during a visit to the Julia Callahan School in Lynn. Shown standing with the Governor are: Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles (left), MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt (right), along with the students welcoming the Governor.
Governor Deval Patrick spends a few moments talking to students from the Callahan elementary school during the recent announcement of the school bus diesel retrofit program.
MassDEP staffers Richard Blanchet (left) and Christine Kirby (right) show off the new "MassCleanDiesel: Clean Air for Kids" sign posted on a school bus during the program's launch at the Callahan School in Lynn. |
More than 5,000 Diesel School Buses to be Retrofitted with Pollution Controls by 2010
The Patrick Administration has announced the nation's first fully funded, statewide program to reduce air pollution from school buses. The new program, MassCleanDiesel, will retrofit yellow school buses with two pollution controls, a diesel particulate filter (on the exhaust system) and a diesel oxidation catalyst (on the engine), reducing the pollutants released into the air and bus cabins by as much as 90 percent.
"The buses that take our children to school should not foul the air breathed by those same children, and this program will help end that situation," said Governor Deval Patrick, during the program's announcement at the Julia F. Callahan Elementary School in Lynn. "I applaud the City of Lynn and its school-bus operator, North Reading Transportation Company, for being the first to volunteer for this new program, and I call on all the Commonwealth's school districts and their bus companies to participate."
The program's launch was timed for the end of the school year, when school buses are used less frequently and therefore more available to retrofit.
Administered by MassDEP, over the next three years, MassCleanDiesel will retrofit up to 5,500 school buses, virtually all the large, diesel-powered buses currently serving public schools that weigh more than 10,000 pounds and carry more than 10 students at a time. The pollution controls will be installed using $16.5 million in state and federal funds provided by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Public Works (EOT), under an agreement associated with the Big Dig. Participation in the program is voluntary and retrofits are free to the communities and bus companies that enroll.
Also attending the announcement were Secretary of Environmental and Energy Affairs Ian Bowles, MassDEP Commissioner Laurie Burt, Lynn Mayor Edward "Chip" Clancy, Lynn representatives Robert Fennell, Steven Walsh, Mark Falzone and Lori Ehrlich, and John McCarthy, of the North Reading Transportation Company.
School buses are a safe and energy efficient way for children to get to school. But school buses, like all diesel-powered vehicles, pollute the air with harmful gases and particles. Diesel pollution contributes to asthma attacks, respiratory problems and other diseases. A 2006 Department of Health survey of 662,994 students found that 1 in 10 schoolchildren in kindergarten through eighth grade have asthma. Approximately 750,000 students take a bus to school in Massachusetts.
"The launch of MassCleanDiesel affirms the Commonwealth's commitment to providing clean air to all residents in the state, especially our children," said Commissioner Burt. "It is also the first step toward a comprehensive approach to combating diesel pollution."
Governor Patrick directed Secretary Bowles and Commissioner Burt to report back to him, by Labor Day, with a comprehensive program for reducing diesel pollution from other sources, with a priority given to protecting vulnerable populations and reducing heavy concentrations of pollution. The diesel retrofits will decrease the levels of exterior and in-cabin particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions, and produce less tailpipe exhaust and pollutants that form smog, without compromising vehicle performance.
"This is a great idea and a great opportunity for us, for the kids and for improving the air we all breathe," said North Reading Transportation Co. owner McCarthy. "We're grateful that the state is stepping up to assist a company like ours and we can help others as a result."
The North Reading Transportation Co. serves 22,000 students in Chelmsford, Dracut, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, North Andover, Wakefield and Wilmington. Other school systems that have expressed interest in the new program include Andover, Beverly, Cohasset, Egremont, Gill, Greenfield, Lincoln and Monson, as well as the Manchester-Essex Regional School District and the Southeastern Regional School District.
To receive free retrofits, school bus owners must enroll in the program, obtain estimates from retrofit vendors and work with those vendors to coordinate equipment installations. MassDEP will reimburse the retrofit vendor directly, provided that installations meet all terms of the program.
For more information about MassCleanDiesel, visit
www.mass.gov/dep/air/diesel/masscleandiesel.htm or call the MassCleanDiesel Help Line at 617-292-5809.
School Bus Retrofit Facts
- MassCleanDiesel will equip several thousand school buses with pollution controls, some of which remove more than 90 percent of bus pollutants, such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons.
- MassCleanDiesel, when fully implemented, will reduce diesel particle pollution by more than 5 tons per year.
- Reducing bus pollution is important for the 750,000 children in Massachusetts who ride the bus to school every day, because children's lungs are particularly susceptible to the harmful effects of diesel exhaust.
- The state Department of Public Health found that one in 10 school children in grades kindergarten to eight suffer from asthma.
- At high enough levels, exposure to diesel exhaust can cause lung damage, aggravate existing respiratory conditions like asthma and bronchitis, and cause cancer.
- More than 500,000 vehicles worldwide have already received diesel retrofits similar to those planned under the MassCleanDiesel program.
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