BEEP Awarded School Bus Replacement Funding

The Bus Emissions Education Program (BEEP) has received notice from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources that more funding will be available in fall 2010 to help eleven school districts purchase a new 2010 EPA-certified school bus to replace a pre-1993 school bus currently in use. In addition, closed crankcase ventilation systems and diesel oxidation catalysts for bus model years 2003 and older in school districts’ bus fleets will be awarded.

More details about participation in this new BEEP grant program and contact information will be emailed to school districts this fall.

Eight New Buses Reducing Children’s Exposure to Diesel Exhaust

The Bus Emissions Education Program (BEEP) has reimbursed eight school districts with $30,450 each for the purchase of new school buses that meet stricter EPA emission standards.

The school districts to have benefited from a BEEP matching grant include Creston, George-Little Rock, SE Webster, West Hancock, Camanche, Independence, Cardinal, and Western Dubuque.

Each school district permanently disabled a bus model from the years 1981 through 1992 that had been used on a regular bus route.

The new diesel buses are running 95 percent cleaner than the buses they replaced. All eight school districts have reduced idling policies at their schools, making the air for children riding and entering or departing their school buses much safer to breathe.

The BEEP mission is to have the cleanest school bus fleet in the United States and to help educate Iowa’s school students on air quality and mobile source pollution and its health effects.

Diesel fuel contains 40 toxic air contaminants, including cancer-causing substances. It also contains fine particles as small as red blood cells that attack lung tissue and enter the bloodstream causing inflammation in the lungs and increased intensity of asthma attacks.

Since its inception in 2002, BEEP has funded the installation of 541 diesel oxidation catalysts on school buses and supported the use of biodiesel through two grants provided by the EPA. A third grant provided the match for the purchase of eight new school buses.

BEEP partners include the School Administrators of Iowa, the Iowa Association of School Boards, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Iowa Department of Education, and the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.

• Bus Idle Reduction Strategies
• Diesel Emissions Quantifier
• National Idle-Reduction Campaign
• IASB School Bus Anti-idling Policy

For more information about the BEEP program contact Mindy Kralicek, air quality information specialist, at (515) 281-7832 or Mindy.Kralicek@dnr.iowa.gov.