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APCD to fund local school bus upgrades
By Joe Naiman
The Alpine Sun
The San Diego Air Pollution Control
District will be spending $3,519,420 in Federal economic
stimulus funding and local matching funds to replace, repower,
or retrofit 127 school buses, including several Alpine Union
School District, and Mountain Empire Union School District
buses.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which acts
as the governing board of the San Diego Air Pollution Control
District, voted 5-0 Sept. 23 to accept the recommendations of
APCD staff. The approved allocations will fund the replacement
of 12 buses with cleaner vehicles, the repowering of two school
buses with cleaner engines, and the retrofit of 113 buses with
particulate filters.
The funding will repower two Mountain Empire Unified
School District buses, and retrofit five Alpine Union School
District buses and two Mountain Empire Union School District
buses.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
provided $156 million nationwide for the National Clean Diesel
Funding Assistance Program to support diesel emission reductions
programs. The San Diego Air Pollution Control District was
awarded $1,563,652 while the Air Pollution Control District was
required to provide $2,037,000 in matching funds. The total
$3,600,652 expenditure includes $81,232 for program outreach and
administration.
The National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program
pays for up to 25 percent of the cost to replace a school bus,
up to 75 percent of the cost to repower a school bus, and up to
$9,000 of the cost to retrofit a school bus.
The APCD received applications from 28 school districts
and one private school transportation provider. Those
applications requested 38 bus replacements, five school bus
repowers, and 298 retrofits and would have a total cost of
nearly $10 million. The APCD recommendations were based on
replacing, repowering, and retrofitting the oldest eligible
buses, limiting the replacement of school buses to 1984 and
older models and the retrofits to 1987 through 1995 models.
The APCD had planned to use state Proposition 1B
Lower-Emission School Bus Program funds for the required local
match, but the state’s inability to sell bonds has caused that
grant program to be suspended. All projects funded with National
Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program money must be completed
by Sept. 30, 2010, so the APCD utilized $2,037,000 from the Air
Quality Power Generation Mitigation Fund for the matching
amount.
School districts will be required to pay any costs
above the $2,037,000 appropriation, and the Mountain Empire
Unified School District, which is the only district, which
requested bus repower funds, will pay the 25 percent not covered
by the National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program.
MEUSD had requested repowering of a total of five buses
and had requested retrofits for a total of five buses. In
addition to the three MEUSD repowers and three MEUSD retrofits,
the list of unfunded requests also includes one Alpine Union
School District bus replacement, one AUSD retrofit, and two
Jamul-Dulzura Union School District retrofits.
The repowers, and retrofits which were approved for
APCD funding are expected to reduce diesel particulate emission
matters by approximately 1.6 tons annually and reduce oxides of
nitrogen emissions by approximately 0.9 tons annually.
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