Panel Urges Stricter Emissions Rules for L.A.’s School Buses

The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Wednesday urged the state to adopt strict emissions standards for Los Angeles’ school bus fleet, saying continued exposure to diesel exhaust puts children’s health at risk.

The statement came a day before the California Air Resources Board is scheduled to consider a rule requiring that new school buses purchased to transport Southern California students have the cleanest-burning engines available. The rule would also apply to public and private fleets of municipal transit vehicles and trash trucks in the AQMD’s four-county jurisdiction.

The AQMD held a news conference Wednesday to highlight what it said were the risks of exposing schoolchildren to diesel emissions. Heavy-duty diesel vehicles and stationary diesel engines are responsible for 70% of the air pollution cancer risks in Southern California, according to a study by the agency.

Marlene Canter, president of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, appeared at the event in support of the proposed rule. “We owe it to our children to reduce their risk from breathing toxic diesel exhaust,” she said.

Sean Edgar of the California Refuse Removal Council, which represents private waste-haulers, said converting the region’s fleet of 4,000 trash trucks to cleaner-burning natural gas -- the only readily available option under the proposed rule -- could be problematic. Currently, 75% of the trucks are diesel.

“Natural gas has occasional supply problems,” he said.

Similar rules requiring clean-burning engines in school buses were adopted by the South Coast air agency in 2000 but never fully implemented after legal challenges were filed by engine manufacturers and others.

The proposal being considered by the state board -- like the one previously passed by the AQMD -- would not require wholesale retrofitting of the region’s school bus fleet. Rather, it would require that when districts and private operators replace old buses or add to their fleets, they purchase cleaner-burning vehicles.

The proposed rule calls for phasing in more strict emissions standards over time for new bus purchases, beginning with 2005 models. The rule does not single out diesel engines as a target, but such engines represent the majority of engines used in municipal fleets of large vehicles and are among the worst pollution sources in Southern California.

Some education officials, however, fear such new rules may cause some financially strapped districts to cease providing buses entirely. Doug Schneider of the California Assn. of School Transportation Officials said ongoing costs to operate natural gas buses are greater than for diesel vehicles. “Schools already have enough straws on the camel’s back, this could be the one that causes districts to say, ‘We’ll only provide the minimum transportation,’ ” he said.