Yukon schools will receive $200K to replace polluting buses
Staff Writer jwingerter@oklahoman.com
Yukon Public Schools will receive $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to replace 10 buses in its aging fleet.
Last week, the EPA awarded more than $8.7 million to replace or retrofit 452 diesel school buses around the country as part of an effort to reduce harmful pollutants linked to asthma and lung damage. The funds went to 141 districts in 32 states.
Jason Brunk, Yukon’s assistant superintendent of human resources, said new buses cost about $72,000 each. EPA funds will cover 28 percent of the $720,000 price tag.
“That $200,000 is going to be a big help,” he said. “(These) ten buses, we needed to replace anyway and so, basically, it gets the cost down to $52,000 from the $72,000 (each).”
Brunk said credit for the rebate goes to Jason Carmichael, the district’s transportation director, who filed the paperwork but has since left Yukon Public Schools. The rebate Yukon received was the maximum allowed, according to the EPA.
Out with the old, in with the new
The new buses are scheduled to arrive in early April. The district will then put 10 old buses out of commission by drilling a three-foot hole in their engines and cutting their frames in half. After that, the district will be eligible for the $200,000 rebate.
The rebate is part of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, an EPA program to replace and retrofit buses more than a dozen years old. Older diesel engines “emit nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, which are linked to instances of aggravated asthma, lung damage and other serious health problems,” according to the EPA.
“These rebates are an innovative way to improve air quality across the country and provide kids with safe, reliable transportation to and from school,” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general.
Yukon was the only Oklahoma district to receive a 2017 rebate. In 2016, Boswell Public Schools in southeast Oklahoma did. In 2015, rebates went to Mounds Public Schools in Creek County and the Green Country Technology Center in Okmulgee. Rebates in 2014 went to three Oklahoma districts — Beggs, Latta and Lone Star — as well as the Wes Watkins Technology Center in Wetumka.
Yukon Public Schools has a fleet of about 60 buses. As part of a 10-year plan to refresh its fleet, the district replaces four to six buses each year, according to Brunk.
“But this year we basically doubled what our plan was because of the rebate,” he said. “We wanted to take full advantage of it — 10 buses, $20,000 apiece.
“It was a huge help,” he added.