Passengers to Be Monitored for Pollutant Levels

Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has announced a pilot program to study the air quality on school buses, in passenger loading and unloading areas and in the classroom by having students wear portable air monitors. In concert with the student monitoring, the project, called the Clean School Bus Program, will test the effectiveness of clean diesel technology by retrofitting several school buses with particulate traps and oxidation catalysts. The buses will be run on ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. Personal monitoring will take place in May and September, before and after the clean-diesel upgrades to the buses. Funding for the project was made available through a Supplemental Environmental Project, resulting from a settlement of an enforcement action against a Norwich metallurgical facility. Through the $250,000 settlement, the DEP will fund the retrofitting of six to eight buses with pollution-control equipment and subsidize the city of Norwich for the 15 cents-per-gallon premium for low-sulfur fuel. First Student Inc., the bus company that serves Norwich, will start the 2002-03 school year with the retrofitted buses. The new technologies are expected to reduce hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide levels by approximately 70 percent. Fine particulates are expected to be reduced by as much as 90 percent.