News Releases from Region 09

EPA Awards San Joaquin Valley $677,214 for 48 Trucks

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $677,214 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) funding to the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to replace 48 heavy duty trucks powered by cleaner 2013 or newer model year engines. Eight million dollars was awarded for 21 clean diesel projects nationwide.

"This project to reduce diesel emissions is a great example of how collaboration among public and private partners can make a difference to our local communities," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "As a result, residents of the San Joaquin Valley will be able to breathe cleaner, healthier air."

The effort is part of the West Coast Collaborative, a clean air partnership that leverages public and private funds to reduce emissions from the most polluting diesel sources in impacted communities. Along the West Coast, public, private and tribal partners from California, Hawaii, Oregon and Idaho received a total of nearly $3.5 million in funding to retrofit and replace old, polluting diesel vehicles and equipment, including school buses, short and long haul trucks. This funding is part of EPA's DERA Fiscal Year 2014 allocation which will include engine replacements, repowers, and idle reduction technologies to clean up a variety of older diesel engines. DERA is set to expire in 2016.

EPA has implemented standards to make newly manufactured diesel engines more than 90 percent cleaner, but many older diesel vehicles and equipment remain in operation and predate these standards. Older diesel engines emit large amounts of pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter. These pollutants are linked to health problems, including aggravated asthma, lung damage, and other serious health problems. Since 2008, the DERA program has awarded more than 700 grants across the country in 600 communities. These projects have reduced emissions from more than 60,000 engines.

Reducing particulate matter emissions also reduces black carbon, which influences climate by directly absorbing light, reducing the reflectivity ("albedo") of snow and ice through deposition, and interacting with clouds.

Today's selected projects fund cleaner diesel engines that operate in economically disadvantaged communities whose residents suffer from higher-than-average instances of asthma, heart, and lung disease.

To learn more about this year's West Coast Collaborative DERA projects, visit: http://www.westcoastcollaborative.org

For more information about EPA's National Clean Diesel campaign and the awarded DERA projects nationally, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.