TOP STORY
issues. California uses CNG, propane and clean diesel fuel buses. Consequences are general maintenance
is more expensive and the CNG tanks must be replaced every 15 years. Educa- tors must replace the tanks at $20,000 each and provide maintenance. CNG bus- es purchased in the mid-1990s are coming due for tank replacement and CARB has advised educators to turn to their local air quality districts for help. Aaron Richardson, spokesman for the
Bay Area Air Quality Management Dis- trict, said that, to date, no funding has been identified to help replace the CNG tanks in his district. Meanwhile, Ralph Knight, transportation supervisor for Napa Valley Unified School District in the Bay Area, said he must replace tanks on five buses each year for the next six years or face unsavory options. “I’m hoping the air districts step up
because they’re in the business of clean energy,” Knight said, who won a green
fleet award earlier this year from the Al- ternative Fuel Vehicle Institute and a green fleet award from School Transpor- tation News at the STN EXPO in 2008. “I believe they will stand behind us. Tey don’t want to go backwards, they’ve accomplished a lot. We’re in a bleak situa- tion, and we don’t know what the cuts in education will be this year. Last year (edu- cation) had to cut 20 percent, so we have no fat. California does not require school districts to transport students, and some districts may be forced to stop complete- ly. Some kids would have to walk more than four miles to school.” Seyed Sadredin, executive director for
the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Con- trol District, said his district is one of a handful that opted to help pay mainte- nance costs and replace the tanks on the CNG buses. He said it is a matter of priori- ties what each district does with available funding. Air quality districts are responsi- ble for more than school district vehicles.
“We have tough regulations. School
districts here could not afford to comply with regulations on their own,” Sadredin said. “Our conclusion was school districts would discontinue busing and that would be harmful. Children who lived farther away from school would suffer. We did not want them in a situation where they would be forced to discontinue busing.” Other states fund programs geared
mostly toward retrofits but still see Cali- fornia as a leader. “California is usually a litmus test for all
of us because they have more stringent rules and procedures,” said Peg Hanna, manager of
the Diesel Risk Reduction
Program for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. “We do not adopt everything they do, but they are a model. Tey have a long list of strategies for dealing with air quality issues.” New Jersey committed about $6.4 mil-
lion to install closed crankcase ventilation systems on 6,989 diesel buses during the past two years. Other states with aggressive lower-emis-
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sion programs include Washington State, which has invested about $23 million in retrofits and pollution control devices since 2002, and Texas, which has allocated $5.4 million this year to offer grants of up to $15,000 per bus to school districts that add diesel particulate filters to their buses. Plus, the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) for the past several years has been a leading proponent of propane, which is derived from natural gas. Blue Bird announced in July that more
than 1,000 of its propane-powered Type C conventional Vision school buses are currently being used by school districts nationwide. Several hundred of these school buses have been purchased in Texas, where the RRC has implemented an $860,000 Propane Education and Re- search Council grant and has used part of the $30 million Texas Emissions Reduction Plan and fund from the State Energy Con- servation Office toward propane vehicles. Another large provider of CNG is
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20 School Transportation News Magazine September 2010 TM Supplier Council Member
Tomas Built Buses. Te vehicle OEM, along with Blue Bird, has sold hundreds of these school buses to Los Angeles Uni- fied School District alone over the past couple of years. n
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