Grant

Will Help Yellow Buses

Go Green

By Martha Coville

Newtown’s yellow buses just got a little greener.

Schools Director of Transportation Anthony DiLonardo said he recently received a $280,250 grant from the EPA to reduce the exhaust produced by the buses’ diesel engines.

Mr DiLondaro applied for the grant because “Fairfield County has some of the worst air quality in the state,” he said.

Reducing emissions from diesel engines is a priority for the EPA for two reasons. Robert Varney, the administrator for the EPA, said, “Diesel engines contribute significantly to air pollution.” Children, in particular, are vulnerable to the fine particles in diesel exhaust. “The Northeast has some of the highest asthma rates in the nation, including a childhood asthma rate above ten percent in New England,” Mr Varney said.

Students who ride the bus to and from school are directly exposed to diesel exhaust.

The worst culprits, Mr DiLonardo said, are school buses manufactured before 2007. Newer buses are built with a ceramic filter to prevent the particles in diesel exhaust from contaminating the air. Newtown owns “approximately 60” buses purchases before 2007.

Newtown was awarded the grant specifically to retrofit its older buses with ceramic filters.

“It’s for the retrofitting of the buses with the d-particulate matter filters,” Mr DiLonardo said.

Mr DiLonardo is required to go out to bid for the filters. The project will take a while, he said. “All the buses will be retrofitted over a three-year span of time.”

Reducing diesel exhaust has also been priority for Mr DiLonardo.

“That has been one of the projects since I came to Newtown,” he said. “I applied for the grant two years ago, and when I didn’t get it, I reapplied for it last summer.”