New GP bus still coming

Three Whitman County school districts received grants from the Washington State Department of Ecology to replace old buses with new ones with an idle reduction system to lower emissions.

The state Department of Ecology allocated $12 million of the $28.4 million it received as settlement from Volkswagen for violating Washington’s Clean Air Act.

The grant is to replace buses 17 years old or older that emit far more pollution than today’s options. The old technology in the buses is particularly worrisome in that children are the most at risk of the negative health effects diesel pollution can cause.

New buses purchased must have an effective clean emissions system.

Each school that was awarded the grant, after providing proof of destroying the old bus and purchasing the new one, can receive up to $35,000 for each bus replaced. Different schools are allotted a different number of buses they can receive.

In Whitman County while Garfield-Palouse and Rosalia school districts each are allowed one, Pullman’s school district will be allowed up to nine buses over two years.

Because Garfield-Palouse’s new unleaded gas bus is still being built, the school district has to continue using a 2000 bus, the only one that fits both the age bracket and the mileage bracket requirements for the grant.

To destroy an old bus, districts are required to drill into the bus’s engine and frame.

Grant funds will be issued after receiving proof the old bus has been destroyed and of the purchase of the new one.

Garfield-Palouse decided to purchase a new 65 passenger International bus for $117,056. The grant will reimburse the school district $35,000.