Grant to help buy greener buses

The Washougal School District has received $60,000 from the Washington State Department of Ecology toward purchase of three new buses.

Three $20,000 grants are among 34 awards announced last week with one objective in mind: To replace the state’s oldest, most-polluting school buses with clean-burning models.

The rear-engine, 2009 Thomas-Built models that Washougal will buy produce next-to-zero diesel particulates, found to be especially harmful to children.

“They’re as clean as can be,” said Theresa Hekel, Washougal district transportation supervisor. Improved catalytic systems in new buses trap almost all emissions, she said.

“The last three years, (manufacturers have) turned them around to where there’s nothing coming out of the tailpipe,” she said.

Washougal was among 33 school districts to compete for the DOE grants this year, and one of 21 to win money. Longview and Skamania school districts obtained grants for three, and one, buses, respectively.

The past five years, the DOE program has provided almost $2.9 million for cleaner school buses. Funds come from the state motor vehicle account and a hazardous substance fee. The latter was created by Washington voters in 1988 when they passed Initiative 97, the Model Toxics Control Act, which targets environmental cleanups.

Southwest Washington school districts already have installed pollution-reducing devices on hundreds of buses. But the DOE grants help to replace models too old for an effective retrofit.

It’s good timing for the Washougal district, which in recent years has replaced about four vehicles in its 50-bus fleet annually. Money from a two-year transportation levy approved in 2006 by district voters runs out after this year, Hekel said.

Washougal will pick up its new buses next spring from Schetky Northwest, which operates in northeast Portland. Under a Washington state bus pool-purchase agreement, the price is $96,000 apiece, Hekel said. Each bus can seat nearly 80 passengers.

“The rear-end engines, they’re better on the hills,” Hekel said, noting Washougal’s steep geography. “They’re beautiful buses, they really are.”

It’s not as if the district is shedding junkers. Due to be dispatched are two 1986 models and one 1987 bus, with 190,000 to 230,000 miles on each, Hekel said. They simply pollute more than newer buses, all of which must pass annual emission inspections, she said.

Alas, there’s no working retirement in Latin America for the old buses: Junk metal is what’s in store for the ’80s trio. To stem diesel’s harm, the DOE grants require school districts to document that each old bus is scrapped, Hekel said.

Makes sense, since an old bus fetches about $1,200 for metal these days, compared to $400 or $500 trade-in value, she said.

“It has to be totally destroyed,” Hekel. “You don’t want that footprint out there, anywhere.”

Howard Buck: 360-735-4515 or howard.buck@columbian.com.