Diesel buses, clean air; Retrofitted fleet to reduce pollution, improve health

RevereBy Thor JourgensenThe Daily ItemSchool Superintendent Paul Dakin on Tuesday said Revere’s share of $16.5 million in school bus pollution reduction equipment is an investment in local students’ good health.”There are subtle ways to go about building a future for children. Leaving the planet a cleaner, better place is one way,” Dakin said.Dakin said about 950 of the 6,300 Revere public school students ride buses on school days. About 35 students out of 406 attending the Paul Revere School, where local and state officials announced the pollution reduction effort on Tuesday, ride a bus daily from Point of Pines.School buses owned by Healey Bus Inc. of Lynn and assigned under contract to Revere public schools are among 2,114 buses serving schools in 300 communities retrofitted by the state with diesel pollution reduction equipment.Healey transports about 2,000 Revere, Nahant and Saugus students to and from school.State environmental officials said the crankcase ventilation and exhaust system alterations to the buses reduce the amount of exhaust, also called particulate matter, pouring out of bus tailpipes.”There is strong evidence that particulate matter is implicated in the rising asthma rates in school-age children and is also considered a probable carcinogen,” state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Ed Coletta wrote in a DEP press release.DEP paid for the emission equipment with state tax dollars and Dakin does not think the retrofitted buses will represent an added fuel cost or other expense in the school department’s contract with Healey.”Retrofitting is not expensive,” said state Environmental Protection Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell, “But it offers dramatic air quality benefits.”Claire McNair of Revere drives a Healey Bus and said she is glad the new equipment is reducing exhaust pollution on her bus even as she focuses on keeping her passengers safe.”If you can smell it while you are driving, it’s not good for the kids,” she said.Kimmell said the bus retrofitting project began three years ago, partly at the urging of Gov. Deval Patrick. State Environmental Affairs Secretary Richard Sullivan said other state vehicles, including mass transit buses, are slated to be equipped with exhaust reduction equipment.”The benefits really can’t be measured. They come in the form of clear air and better health. This is a way to make positive differences in quality of life,” Sullivan said.