Grant aims to help clear diesel pollution

From the Charlotte Observer, Wednesday July 1 2009
By Bruce Henderson

Mecklenburg County will get $1.1 million in federal money to help stanch pollution from diesel engines, the Environmental Protection Agency says.
While Mecklenburg's air pollution focus for years has been on highway traffic, diesel emissions from trucks, buses and off-road equipment such as bulldozers also play a big role.
Off-road machines, fueled by gasoline or diesel, release about a third of the county's vehicle emissions of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides. They emit three-quarters of the tiny particles, or soot, that have been linked to heart and lung problems and premature death.
The EPA grant, part of the federal economic stimulus package, will expand a diesel-pollution program that Mecklenburg County has operated for two years, said Leslie Rhodes, the county's mobile source program manager.
The program aims to replace old, high-polluting diesel engines in off-road construction machines in Mecklenburg and six surrounding N.C. counties.
The new money will enlarge the program to 13 counties, including some in South Carolina, and add on-road diesel vehicles and stationary equipment such as generators. Those counties are expected to fail a new ozone standard the EPA adopted last year.
Mecklenburg will work with regional councils of government to distribute the grant money, Rhodes said.
The EPA said that $1.1 million will be enough to replace at least 28 diesel engines and retire six or more pieces of equipment. That would reduce nitrogen oxides releases in the area by 166 tons a year, the agency said, and lower particle emissions by 10 tons.
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Mecklenburg County will use the money to expand its GRADE (Grants to Replace Aging Diesel Engines) program.
On April 16th, the North Carolina Solar Center Clean Transportation team awarded the Mecklenburg County Air Quality GRADE program an NC Mobile CARE Award for being the first local government incentive program to reduce air pollution from off-road construction equipment.
Visit the Mecklenburg County Air Quality home page to apply for grant money once the funds have been distributed.