Cleaning up South Coast school buses

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The era of the big, yellow, diesel-belching school bus may be drawing to a close for some South Coast school districts.

On Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District issued nearly $43 million in grants to help 13 school districts replace their worst polluting buses with new vehicles that use cleaner-burning compressed natural gas and propane.

AQMD also issued more than $3 million to school districts for the installation of particulate matter trapping devices in 176 newer diesel school buses.

‘The number of school buses being replaced or retrofitted with this award is extraordinary, and it’s a giant step toward our goal of cleaning up all school bus fleets in the region,’ said William A. Burke, chairman of South Coast AQMD. ‘This will help thousands of school children and their communities breathe a little easier.’

The California Air Resources Board has already cracked down on diesel pollution from trucks. Diesel accounts for about 84% of the cancer risk from air pollution in Southern California, according to AQMD.

--Amy Littlefield