Ohio EPA Clean Diesel School Bus Fund Retrofit Grants Program
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This program offers grants up to $300,000 to retrofit diesel school buses with pollution control equipment and idle reduction equipment, to reduce student and driver exposure to the harmful pollutants in diesel exhaust and to conserve fuel. Application deadlines are every March 1 and September 1. Public school districts and county developmental disability programs in Ohio are eligible to apply
Applications from every county will be accepted, but priority for funding is given to applicants that already have anti-idling policies in place for their buses, and applicants located in the 27 Ohio counties that do not currently meet national air quality standards for fine particulates (soot particles). A map of these counties is posted at: www.epa.ohio.gov/portals/27/SIP/Nonattain/pm2_5.pdf
Grants are funded from civil penalties Ohio EPA collects from environmental violations, and federal grants. Since the program began, Ohio EPA has awarded more than $7 million to retrofit 2,337 school buses with emission controls and 544buses with idle reduction equipment. These grants have removed more than 145 tons of pollutants from the Ohio skies. Grants have been awarded to 129 school districts and developmental disability programs.
Notice to school bus grant applicants and vendors: Some diesel emission control technologies require temperature testing or data-logging to ensure that technology is appropriate for a particular bus. This testing should be completed BEFORE submitting a grant application to Ohio EPA. Ohio EPA will not approve requests for modifications to awarded grants that result in significantly less emission reductions. If a technology is found to be inappropriate after a grant is awarded, the grant funds for the affected buses will be forfeited, and the grantee will have to submit a new grant application in a subsequent grant cycle to request funds for the lower-level reduction technology on those buses.
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Grant Application for 2012 (word)
Grant Application for 2012(pdf)
Application Guidance: Questions and answers (word)
Grant Program slideshow [PPT]
General Guidelines for Ohio EPAs Program for the Retrofitting of School Buses [PDF]
Alphabetical List of Recipients, 2006-October 2011 [DOC]
Map showing locations of school bus retrofit projects.
Grant Awards, August 2011 [DOC]
Grant Awards, May 2011 [DOC]
Forms for Grant Recipients:
For additional questions about the grant program, please contact Carolyn Watkins at carolyn.watkins@epa.state.oh.us, or 614-644-3768. For questions about diesel bus retrofitting, particle standards, or program rules, contact John Paulian at john.paulian@epa.state.oh.us, or 614-644-4832.
U.S. EPA also has a “Clean School Bus USA” grant program designed to reduce children’s exposure to diesel exhaust, and reduce the amount of air pollution created by diesel school buses. According to U.S. EPA, 24 million children ride the school bus every day, and on average, students spend an hour and a half each weekday in a school bus.
For more information about the U.S. EPA school bus grant program, visit www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus. US EPA’s Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative also provides funding for school bus retrofits. More information is available at http://www.epa.gov/midwestcleandiesel/grants/ .
The University of Cincinnati’s Department of Environmental Health is conducting a multi-year study to determine if children with higher levels of exposure to diesel exhaust particles are at increased risk for hypersensitivity to specific allergens, and related respiratory disorders.
For more information about this project and similar publications from the Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study, visit www.eh.uc.edu/ccaaps/.