Texas district awarded $1.7M for bus retrofits
The grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's Texas Clean School Bus Program will outfit 129 Brownsville Independent School District buses with pollution-control equipment, including diesel particulate filters for older school buses.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas — Brownsville Independent School District (ISD) officials on Monday received $1.7 million to outfit 129 school buses with pollution-control equipment.
The district received the grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) as part of the Texas Clean School Bus Program.
The grant will fund diesel particulate filters for older school buses to reduce particulate matter by 85 to 90%.
“Brownsville ISD is pleased to be selected as a beneficiary in this program,” Superintendent Carl A. Montoya said. “Retrofitting a good portion of our bus fleet provides significant benefits to our children and community in the form of cleaner air. We are also grateful to our local lawmakers for promoting these initiatives.”
Brownsville ISD has 57 schools serving approximately 50,000 children, and it operates 304 buses. Approximately 27,000 students ride a school bus daily.
The Texas Clean School Bus Program began in 2008. Officials said the TCEQ has granted $2.9 million in the Rio Grande Valley and more than $16 million statewide to retrofit approximately 6,400 school buses with pollution-control equipment.
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