Gloucester County Public Schools Propane School Bus Pilot Program
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Gloucester County Public Schools is the first in the state to pilot the new Blue Bird Propane Vision school buses. A dedication ceremony was held on October 26, 2009.
Download the news release by clicking here.
Download the event invitation by clicking here.
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Dragon Run Clean School Bus Project
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October 9, 2008
“Dragon Power” Helps Students in the Middle Peninsula Breath Cleaner Air
GLOUCESTER (October 9, 2008) – Virginia Delegate Harvey Morgan will help celebrate the commitment made by four Middle Peninsula school districts to clean up the air and school bus diesel emissions at 1 p.m. on October 11, 2008 during the fourth annual Dragon Run Day at Thousand Trails Campground in Gloucester County.
Students riding on buses in the Middle Peninsula are now breathing cleaner air and running on “Dragon Power” thanks to grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The $201,068 in grant funding covers installation of emissions reduction equipment, the incremental cost of a propane school bus, a biodiesel buy-down program, and an idle reduction program. “We are happy to support this project working toward cleaner air,” said David K. Paylor, Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. “Reducing air pollutants from diesel-fueled buses helps protect the health of children and older Virginians, as well as the environment.”
The Dragon Run Watershed Counties of Gloucester, Middlesex, Essex, and King & Queen County Public Schools finished up retrofitting a total of 71 school buses with diesel oxidation catalysts in August prior to the 2008-2009 school year beginning. A DOC is a device that uses a chemical process to break down pollutants in the exhaust stream into less harmful components. “DEQ has provided more than $2.7 million to localities to retrofit 1,311 diesel school and transit buses with air pollution control devices,” Paylor said. “These projects improve air quality throughout the state by reducing soot, smog and other pollutants.” The retrofit equipment in combination with biodiesel blends and ultra low sulfur diesel fuel can reduce pollution emissions from the diesel buses by 60 to 90 percent.
“In addition to obvious clean air and health benefits, the Clean School Bus award supports or complements many components of the effort to preserve the sensitive Dragon Run watershed in Virginia’s Middle Peninsula,” said Al Christopher, Executive Director of Virginia Clean Cities. Biodiesel or “Dragon Power” was the catalyst for the Clean School Bus proposal.
Virginia Clean Cities was contracted by the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission in 2007 to work on a project funded by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to continue further exploration of biodiesel market viability and its potential to fulfill the goal to provide sustainable natural resource-based economic benefit to the watershed community centered around the use and production of biodiesel as a cleaner, healthier, domestic alternative to fossil fuels.
For a region whose economic base is largely forestry and farming, biodiesel demonstrated an opportunity to provide sustainable natural resource-based economic and environmental benefit to the watershed community. Virginia Clean Cities and the MPPDC worked to develop a strong stakeholder base, and worked with school districts to introduce a resolution and partnership agreements. School districts saw an opportunity to use biodiesel blends to further reduce exhaust emissions and preserve the sensitive watershed by using and promoting more widespread public acceptance of a clean, renewable fuel made from crops such as soybeans and canola grown on local farmland whose large land tracts protect the Dragon Run watershed from sprawling development. After the resolutions and partnership agreements were in place, the Clean School Bus funding opportunity was a natural stepping-stone.
Project Partners:
Gloucester County Public Schools http://gets.gc.k12.va.us/
Middlesex County Public Schools http://sun.mcps.k12.va.us/
King & Queen County Public Schools http://www.kqps.net/index.html
Essex County Public Schools http://www.essex.k12.va.us/
The Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa.gov/otaq/schoolbus/
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality http://www.deq.virginia.gov/
The Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission http://www.mppdc.com/dragon/
Virginia Clean Cities http://www.hrccc.org
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Dragon Run Clean School Bus Project
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On March 4, 2008 EPA's Region 3 Clean School Bus program awarded $143,068 to the Hampton Roads Clean Cities Corporation to reduce diesel school bus emissions from several schools throughout Virginia's Middle Peninsula. The grant will improve the air quality for the student population of four public schools including King and Queen County Public Schools, Mathews County Public Schools, Middlesex County Public Schools, and Gloucester County Public Schools. The lengthened ride time for students, rural nature, and elongated geography of these county-sized school districts make them prime candidates for school bus upgrades. The grant was awarded as part of EPA's Clean School Bus USA program under the National Clean Diesel Campaign and will fund projects that reduce diesel emissions by : installing diesel oxidation catalysts on 100 school buses, using biodiesel fuel in 198 buses, and replacing an old diesel bus with a new cleaner burning alternative fuel propone bus.
Press Relase 4/11/08: EPA Press Release
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Virginia Hydrogen Economy Roundtable
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Virginia Clean Cities manages the Virginia Hydrogen Economy Roundtable which developed Virginia's Vision for the Hydrogen Economy. The roadmap recommends actions to foster the development of a hydrogen economy in Virginia. Five actions were recommends actions to foster the development of a hydrogen economy in Virginia and to help focus Virginia's continuing efforts:
• Educate Virginia's future workfoce, focusing on K-12 education
• Leverage the research and development (R&D) potential of Virginia's academic institutions
• Invest in hydrogen demonstration projects with high visbility
• Foster parnership building
• Coordinate policies and incentives to drive the building of a hydrogen economy in Virginia
Teacher training workshops are being held throughout the state, and are designed to support Virginia Science Standards of Learning and provide educators with tools to return to their classrooms to integrate energy and hydrogen into their curriculum. Participating schools receive the H2 Educate curriculum and hands-on kits created by the National Energy Education Development (NEED) Project.
Educating Virginia's future workfoce and focusing on K-12 education was considered a priority item because student education is a key component to broadcasting the hydrogen message and developing a knowlegeable, involved hydrogen support network. In order to avoid our past from continuing to define our future, a targeted technology and applications level education program for students and teachers was developed and inspired by the hydrogen cirriculum already developed and pilot tested by NEED (under a grant from DOE). Need training programs are endorsed by the Science Museum of Virginia.
The firest workshop was held at the Science Museum of Virginia, and a media event was held prior to lunch. The press release is linked below.
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Biodiesel Retail Infrastructure and Marquee Fleets
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The Biodiesel Retail Infrastructure and Marquee Fleets Project seeks to offer economic and other incentives to encourage more widespread introduction of public retail and commercial biodiesel fueling infrastructure and to prepare for and encourage the introduction of biodiesel blends to marquee fleets that can serve as public examples and attract news coverage. As part of this project, Virginia Clean Cities helped fund infratrucutre improvements for PAPCO Energy, Inc. in order to prepare for biodiesel retail introduction. This resulted in the opening of the first publicly accessible biodiesel station in Virginia Beach. The opening of the station was the catalyst for Viginia Beach Public Schools to transition to B20 in all of the buses that refueled at the PAPCO station -- some 200 school buses. The press release is linked below.
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Press Releases by Other Organizations Related VaCC/HRCCC Projects
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The press release linked below was created by the National Biodiesel Foundation to announce grant receipients for biodiesel fuel quality awareness workshops. Virginia Clean Cities was a recipient of the competitive award and will host 3 fuel quality seminars during the fall of 2007. Visit our Virginia Biodiesel Fuel Quality Seminar page to learn more about the events.
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