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From YouTube: Improving Air Quality One School Bus at a Time
Description
Video produced for WNC Air Quality Agency about grant received from EPA to retrofit Buncombe, Madison, Transylvania and Haywood counties with air pollution control devices.
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For more information about Buncombe County Government, visit http://www.buncombecounty.org/.
A
Riding
the
school
bus
is
the
safest
way
for
children
to
get
to
school,
and
today
it
is
also
one
of
the
cleanest.
This
was
not
always
the
case,
however.
Prior
to
the
2004
school
year,
nearly
90%
of
school
buses
in
our
region
were
equipped
with
no
pollution
controls.
It
was
not
uncommon
to
see
black
smoke
billowing
from
the
tailpipes
of
many
school
buses
with
the
haze
that
blankets,
our
Mountain
View's
as
each
year
goes
by.
A
It
has
been
important
to
change
the
situation
in
October
2002,
the
United
States
Environmental
Protection
Agency
awarded
the
Western
North
Carolina
Regional
air
quality
agency,
a
$75,000
grant
to
establish
a
pilot
project
with
Buncombe
County
Schools
to
reduce
pollution
from
their
school
buses,
working
with
the
school's
Transportation
Department
eighty-eight
of
the
288
school
buses
in
Buncombe
County
and
the
city
of
Asheville
were
retrofitted,
with
pollution
controls
that
cut
their
emissions
by
twenty
to
fifty
percent.
Although
this
was
good
progress,
there
was
still
plenty
of
work
left
to
be
done.
A
It's
important
to
make
sure
that
all
of
our
school
buses
are
clean.
Now,
because
of
a
diesel
engines
durability,
our
existing
buses
will
be
on
the
road
for
a
long
time
to
come.
While
EPA
has
been
working
hard
to
reduce
pollution
from
diesel
trucks
and
buses
by
requiring
them
to
reduce
emissions
by
up
to
95
percent
in
the
future,
these
new
standards
will
only
apply
to
newly
purchased
vehicles.
It
will
take
a
long
time
to
replace
the
trucks
and
buses
currently
on
the
road.
A
In
early
2003,
the
US
Environmental
Protection
Agency
announced
the
formation
of
clean
school
bus
USA
as
a
new
National
Partnership
to
minimize
pollution
from
school
buses.
The
program
encourages
school
districts
to
take
actions
such
as
reducing
bus
idling,
while
loading
and
unloading
children,
retrofitting
buses
with
pollution
controls
and
replacing
the
oldest
buses
in
the
fleet,
with
new,
less
polluting
buses
to
financially
support
the
efforts
of
school
districts,
Congress
included
five
million
dollars
in
EPA's
budget
for
a
cost
shared
grant
program.
A
Hearing
the
good
news
about
clean
school
bus
USA,
the
Western,
North
Carolina
regional
air
quality
agency,
again
approached
Arkham
County
Schools,
as
well
as
other
area
school
districts,
to
propose
applying
for
funds
to
establish
a
regional
project.
As
a
result,
Haywood
Madison
and
Transylvania
County
Schools
jumped
on
board
EPA
solicited
applications
nationwide
for
the
five
million
dollar
appropriation.
As
a
result
of
the
solicitation,
the
federal
government
received
116
applications
requesting
nearly
60
million
dollars
in
funds
in
October
of
2003
EPA
awarded
the
Western
North
Carolina
Regional
air
quality
agency
of
grant
a
two
hundred.
A
Seventy
four
thousand
four
hundred
fifty
five
dollars
through
their
clean
school
bus
USA
program
to
supplement
the
work
already
done
with
Buncombe
County
Schools.
The
grant
one
of
only
17
awarded
nationwide
has
aided
the
air
quality
agency
in
establishing
a
retrofit
project
with
Buncombe
Haywood
Madison
and
Transylvania
County
Schools.
A
These
school
systems,
transport
nearly
25,000
children
to
and
from
school
each
day
in
the
summer
of
2004
emissions
were
reduced
by
retrofitting
pollution
controls
on
all
yellow
school
buses
in
the
region.
This
included
63
school
buses
in
Haywood,
County
37
in
Madison,
County
37
in
Transylvania.
County,
as
well
as
the
remainder
of
Buncombe
County
school
buses,
the
type
of
Pollution
Control
used
in
this
project
is
called
a
diesel
oxidation
catalyst
and
is
similar
to
a
catalytic
converter
on
the
cars
you
and
I
drive.
A
They
use
a
chemical
process
to
break
down
pollutants
in
the
exhaust
stream
to
less
harmful
components.
Particulate
matter
a
contributor
to
our
regional
haze
problem
can
be
reduced
by
nearly
20%
hydrocarbons.
A
contributor
to
our
ground-level
ozone
problem
can
be
reduced
by
50%
and,
lastly,
the
pollutant
carbon
monoxide
can
be
reduced
by
almost
40%
as
a
result
of
this
effort,
every
yellow
school
bus
in
these
four
counties
is
now
equipped
with
pollution
controls
and
is
providing
a
cleaner
ride
for
the
thousands
of
children
in
our
schools.