EXCERPTS FROM THE HEALTHY AIR ACTION PLAN for WESTCHESTER COUNTY

Released January 12th, 2005
For more info call the FCWC office at (914) 422-4053

School Buses
Background: To better understand the extent to which our children are exposed to unhealthy air, some scientists have been looking closely at the air quality inside school buses. In Connecticut, researchers affiliated with Yale University, found that fine particulate matter levels inside a school bus were greater than those measured outside. In California, researchers at the University of California at Berkley working with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Coalition for Clean Air found that excess exhaust levels on school buses were more than eight times the average levels found in the ambient air and between 23 and 46 times higher than levels considered to be a significant cancer risk.

Certainly, the primary mission of school districts is to educate our children. Providing children with clean transportation helps keep kids healthy and in school, so they can learn as much as they can. Unfortunately, traveling to and from school in a dirty diesel bus may hurt their education, due to the many health impacts of the bus’s dirty diesel soot particles. Indeed, exposure to harmful pollutants in high concentrations may actually disrupt the normal development of lung tissue – robbing kids of lung capacity and function as they reach adulthood.

School children are not the only ones at-risk from riding in dirty diesel buses. The drivers are also exposed to the pollution in the bus for long periods of time placing them at-risk for a host of health impacts. Chief among the health impacts for drivers are:

• The US Environmental Protection Agency lists diesel exhaust particles as
  a likely human carcinogen;
• Scientists believe that high levels of sulfate particles (diesels have high
  levels) present the same lung cancer risk as that a non-smoker would face
  living for decades with a smoker;
• Diesel contributes to high levels of fine particles in the air which may cut
  short the lives of more than 5,000 New Yorkers each year; and,
• Scientists have also discovered that fine particles may trigger a second
  heart attack in those who have existing heart disease.

Cleaner Fuel and Retrofits
The first step to reducing diesel school bus emissions is to provide school districts with a cleaner diesel fuel. Reducing sulfur levels in diesel fuel from today’s cap of 500 parts-per-million (ppm) to less than 15 ppm, also referred to as ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD) will cut soot emissions by roughly 20 percent overnight. In addition, the introduction of ULSD will enable the installation of advanced pollution controls (such as diesel particulate filters, or “DPFs”). DPFs can reduce soot emissions by more than ninety percent. Here’s an analogy: just as it was necessary to take lead out of gasoline to clean up cars in the 1970s and 1980s, it is necessary to take sulfur out of diesel fuel to clean up school buses (and other diesel engines) today.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to clean up new diesel engines in the future, but New York needs to act to clean up its existing school bus fleet now. EPA will require ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel (capped at 15 ppm) to be used in all trucks and buses in mid-2006 and will require all new diesel engines to use DPFs and other advanced pollution controls in 2007. However, EPA’s 2007 regulations do not address engines in the existing school bus fleet at all.

There are several ways New York State could provide the cleaner fuel faster than under the federal program. The following options will accomplish this goal and are ones that we would support:

• Enact A.3923-a (DiNapoli et al) that would require the sale of ultra-low
  diesel a year ahead of the federal timetable;
• Create a recurring fund to cover the incremental cost of ultra low sulfur
  diesel fuel and equipment retrofits for those school districts who want to
  use it; and
• Restructure the state bidding process to allow for school districts to
  separately bid out and get reimbursed for ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel.

Cleaner Buses
Each year roughly 10 percent of the school bus fleet is retired and new buses are purchased. Due to more stringent emissions limits, any new bus will be significantly cleaner than the one it replaces. Full turnover of the fleet will take anywhere from ten to twelve years. In addition, pre-1995 buses utilize extremely crude technology that makes cleaning them up harder to accomplish than with buses built later. Therefore, any clean school bus plan must stress several key components. Chief among these are:

• Increased transportation aid to encourage faster rate of replacement of
  buses that were built before the 1995 model year; and,
• Appropriation of funding to continue the school bus retrofit grant program
  for a 5-year period.

Recommendations: Recognizing the large number of busses needing emission controls, we urge the State to develop a comprehensive program with recurring funding. This can be accomplished by using cleaner fuels and retrofits and developing cleaner bus designs.

Background: Currently, New York State’s anti-idling law prohibits vehicles to idle for more than five minutes at a time, other than a legally authorized emergency motor vehicle, while parking, stopping or standing. Some communities have passed local legislation to reduce the idling time to less than five minutes. New York City has passed legislation that prohibits vehicles to idle for longer than three minutes. Currently, there is county law regarding idling.

Westchester County enacted local law 20 of 1991 that limits idling by motor vehicles to 3 minutes on county property, and that no diesel powered vehicle can idle for more than 5 minutes on county property.48

From a public health standpoint, this law is only as good as its enforcement. We encourage the county to enforce this law as aggressively as local agencies enforce parking violations. Public education efforts can include signs and educational materials provided to county residents. Westchester should expand the coverage of its current anti-idling legislation to beyond just county property, and at a minimum to apply to school district property in Westchester County. See: (http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/parknyc4.html). 49

Idle Free School Zones
Because their lungs are so small, children breathe in fifty percent more pollution per pound of body weight than a typical adult. Efforts to reduce air pollution should be doubled wherever children gather. Schools are a good place to start. Emissions from vehicles—especially diesel powered ones—should be reduced on school grounds.

The county should work with school districts to institute “idle free school” zones. Regulations in New York make it illegal to idle any vehicle over 8,500 pounds for more than five minutes. Current county idling law should be expanded to cover more than just county property, including school district property. On school district property, the idling time should be more restrictive, with a limitation of 30 seconds idling time. The idling time limit should be reduced to 30 seconds and should cover all vehicles—school buses, delivery vehicles, and personal passenger vehicles. Doing so will reduce the emissions that can pose a health threat to all children, but especially for those with asthma.