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.
RECOMMENDATION:
Recognizing the large number of busses needing emission
controls, we urge the State to develop a comprehensive program
with recurring funding.
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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).
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RECOMMENDATION:
Westchester County should further reduce idling time on
school district property to 30 seconds.
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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.
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