Gov. Gregoire, Dept. of Ecology announce federal stimulus money to help protect environment, people from diesel emissions

For Immediate Release: April 10, 2009

OLYMPIA � Gov. Chris Gregoire and Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning announced today that $1.73 million in federal stimulus grants will be distributed throughout Washington to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines.

The state Department of Ecology will receive the money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Ecology will use the funds to bolster the Washington clean diesel program.

�More than 4 million people in Washington live or work close to highways or other major roads, where they are likely to be exposed to diesel exhaust,� Gregoire said. �Funding under the Recovery Act will greatly benefit Washington�s environment and people.�

Ecology has identified diesel exhaust as the air pollutant most harmful to public health in Washington. Diesel exhaust causes 70 percent of the cancer risk from airborne pollutants. It puts healthy people at risk for respiratory disease and worsens the symptoms of those with health problems such as asthma and heart and lung disease.

The funds also will support Washington�s economy by paying contractors to install new pollution controls on engines that run on diesel fuel.

Ecology�s air quality program will use about $1.3 million to help to improve pollution controls on privately and publicly owned cargo-handling equipment, such as trucks, loaders and forklifts, at Puget Sound and Columbia River ports. Ecology estimates that money will pay for more than 200 exhaust retrofits.

�This money will help us build on the progress we�ve made in controlling diesel pollution from publicly owned vehicles, including thousands of school buses throughout the state,� Manning said. �That work has helped protect the health of tens of thousands of children who are exposed to emissions from school buses.�

Money for these ports would be distributed as follows:

� Tacoma � $638,000 for about 116 retrofits

� Vancouver � $357,500 for about 65 retrofits

� Seattle �� $154,000 for about 28 retrofits

Each retrofit is expected to reduce particle emissions by 50 percent to 60 percent per diesel engine.

Another $400,000 will help launch an idle reduction retrofit program for public vehicle fleets. Ecology estimates that funds will cover retrofits on roughly an additional100 publicly owned vehicles.

While the Recovery Act allocated $1.73 million to each state and the District of Columbia for clean diesel programs, Ecology is competing for part of another $206 million available for clean diesel projects.