Vehicles to have lower emissions

Ecology gives grants for school buses

COLUMBIA BASIN - Three Columbia Basin schools could buy new school buses, with help from a Washington State Department of Ecology grant.

The department is spending up to $20,000 for new, cleaner running buses in Grand Coulee, Quincy and Washtucna. The state is supporting a total of 30 new buses for 21 school districts across the state.

Thirty three school districts applied for the grant.

Grand Coulee is receiving grants for two buses. Quincy and Washtucna are receiving grants for one bus each.

"Thanks to support from Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature, Ecology has provided nearly $29 million in the past five years to help school districts add pollution controls on buses and buy new, cleaner-running buses," stated Stuart Clark, manager of Ecology's Air Quality Program.

Quincy School District Superintendent Burton Dickerson said the school board will decide whether to use the grant money to purchase a bus. Buses can cost approximately $80,000 to $90,000, Dickerson said.

When the budget was created, the district was unaware of the grant, Dickerson said. No money was earmarked in the budget for a new bus.

"It's still in the early stages of determining how this will work out," he said.

The school board voted Tuesday to transfer $30,000 from the general fund to help pay for a bus the district received in August. The purchase was supported through state funds.

Clark noted some of the oldest and most polluting buses in school districts are unable to be fitted with modern air pollution controls.

"Those buses will be retired and replaced with new, ultra-clean models," Clark stated. "That's important because diesel emissions from school buses pose a health threat to people who breathe them, especially children. We know that diesel exhaust increases asthma, lung and heart disease, and lung cancer."

The Motor Vehicle Account and a hazardous substance fee is used to fund the grant, according to the Department of Ecology. The hazardous substance fee was approved by voters in 1988 as part of Initiative 97, which created the Model Toxics Control Act.