South Coast Air Quality Management District

Approve Grants to Purchase up to 65 New CNG School Buses and Infrastructure, and Retrofit up to 447 Diesel Buses with PM Traps

SYNOPSIS: 

On July 12, 2002, AQMD issued Program Announcement & Application PA2003-05 “Lower-Emission School Bus Replacement and PM Trap Retrofit Program” soliciting applications for new CNG buses and PM traps. Sixteen public school districts applied for 153 new CNG school buses, and seventeen public school districts and private operators applied for 614 PM traps. Staff recommends the approval of school bus replacement awards for 38 CNG buses, in an amount not to exceed $4,951,900. Staff also recommends funding 237 PM traps, to retrofit 1994 and newer diesel buses in an amount not to exceed $1,659,000. In addition, staff recommends funding up to 27 school bus replacements and up to 210 school bus retrofits in a total amount not to exceed $5 million upon receipt of expected funds from U.S. EPA.

COMMITTEE: 

Technology, November 22, 2002. Less than a quorum was present during the discussion of this item; the Chairman communicated his concurrence and recommendation that this item be forwarded for Board consideration with no approval or disapproval recommendation from the Committee.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

1. Authorize the Chairman to approve grants to public school districts to purchase 38 CNG school buses and infrastructure as set forth in Table 3, in an amount not to ex-ceed $4,951,900 from the Lower-Emission School Bus Fund.

2. Authorize the Chairman to approve grants to public school districts and private school bus operators to purchase PM traps to retrofit 1994 and newer diesel buses as set forth in Tables 4 and 5, in an amount not to exceed $1,659,000 from the Lower-Emission School Bus Fund.

3. Authorize the Chairman to approve grants to public school districts to purchase up to 27 CNG school buses and infrastructure as set forth in Table 6 in an amount not to exceed $3,521,129, upon receipt of expected funds from U.S. EPA to be placed in the Lower-Emission School Bus Fund.

4. Authorize the Chairman to approve grants to private school bus operators to pur-chase PM traps to retrofit 1994 and newer diesel buses as set forth in Table 7 in an amount not to exceed $1,470,000, upon receipt of expected funds from U.S. EPA to be placed in the Lower-Emission School Bus Fund.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

Exhaust emissions from high emitting diesel-fueled school buses are harmful to children and are a key source of public exposure to toxic diesel particulate matter and smog forming pollutants. There are thousands of older school buses on the road that have re-mained in service primarily because school districts lack funds to replace them.

Under previous program announcements, AQMD has awarded 141 new compressed natural gas (CNG), and 87 lower-emitting diesel school buses to replace older dirtier diesel buses, and 1058 PM traps to retrofit 1994 and newer diesel buses, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: School Bus Awards for FY 2000-01 and 2001-02

Funding Sources

Sources of funds for the current school bus replacement program are:

• $4,398,853 million from the State Backup Generator (BUG) Program, approved by the Board on July 12, 2002, and
  
• $500,000 from the AES Settlement approved by the Board on September 13, 2002.
  
• $54,000 from a portion of FY 2001-02 unspent funds due to applicant Pupil Transportation not qualifying for one of the 10 buses awarded to them. The un-acceptable replacement bus was not a pre-1987 model year. .

Sources of funds for the current school bus retrofit program are:

• $1.5 million from the State's Lower-Emission School Bus Retrofit program awarded by CARB from funds originally allocated for other areas in the state to retrofit school buses.
  
• $161,000 in unspent funds due to Garden Grove School District turning down 23 traps awarded to them in PA 2002-04.

All the above funds are placed in the AQMD's Lower-Emission School Bus Fund.

When the Board approved PA 2003-05 on July 12, 2002, EPA Funding of $5 million (with $3.5 million for new CNG buses, and $1.5 million for PM traps) was expected. However, unexpected delays have been encountered in receiving this funding.

Funding Distribution for School Bus Replacement

Funds for the school bus replacement component of the program are proposed to be dis-tributed in proportion to each county's general population as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Approximate Distribution of Funds for School Bus Replacement

Since San Bernardino and Riverside counties have similar population density, staff rec-ommends combining funding allocation for both counties to achieve a more equitable distribution of the buses. Thus by combining these two counties the total allocation amount for Riverside and San Bernardino will be $1,000,284.

Los Angeles Unified School District's eligibility is limited to a maximum of fifty per-cent of the total funds allocated for Los Angeles County.

School Bus Purchases

In previous awards under program announcements PA 2001-02, and PA 2002-03, school districts used the Department of General Services (DGS) bid guidelines to purchase new CNG and lower-emitting diesel buses. AQMD paid the base price, the CNG package, sales tax, and, if applicable, the 1% DGS fee. Any additional discretionary option was paid by the school district. The DGS bid has since then expired, and until new DGS bid guidelines are issued, school districts cannot purchase buses under DGS.

Bids that are currently active with the bus manufacturers are the Waterford and the South-West Transportation ("South-West") bids. AZ Bus Sales, marketing the Blue Bird Buses won the Waterford bid, while California Bus Sales, marketing the Thomas buses won the South-West bid. Blue Bird and Thomas buses are the two most popular CNG school buses that school districts could earlier purchase under the DGS bid, but are now available through Waterford and South-West bids.

Staff recommends that school districts be given the choice to buy a school bus either un-der the Waterford bid, which offers the Blue Bird bus, or the South-West bid, which of-fers the Thomas bus. Though not identical, allowing for different options, the prices are somewhat similar. However, unlike the now expired DGS bid, the fire suppressant sys-tem is no longer part of the standard base price, but is being offered as a discretionary option in both the Waterford and South-West bids.

Under this program, similar to the State Lower-Emission School Bus Program, public school districts will pay twenty-five percent not exceeding a maximum of $25,000 for each new bus to replace a pre-1987 school bus. AQMD's award for each bus will pay for the balance of the bus base price including the CNG package, sales tax, and the op-tional fire suppressant system not exceeding $4,000, if desired by the school district.

AB 1390 (Firebaugh), Point Ranking and Awards Recommendation

By the due date of September 13, 2002, a total of 16 applications submitted by public school districts requesting 153 CNG buses were deemed complete and qualified for the school bus replacement program. Under the PM retrofit program, a total of 17 applica-tions submitted by both public school districts and private contractors requesting 614 retrofit units were deemed complete. Fifty percent of funds received under the BUG program ($2,199,430) for the school bus replacement, and fifty percent of funds under the retrofit program ($830,500) must be awarded in compliance with the requirements of AB 1390 (Firebaugh). It requires funds be spent to reduce pollution or risks from air-borne toxics and particulate matter in areas that have the most significant exposure to air pollution or localized air pollution, including low income communities or minority communities or both. The methodology approved by the Board at its December 21, 2001 meeting has been used for the implementation of AB 1390. School districts lo-cated in the following areas were qualified under AB 1390:

• School districts in areas where at least 10% of the population falls below the Federal poverty level based on the Year 2000 census data in combination with,

• Being in areas with the highest 15% of PM concentration,

OR

• Being in areas with the highest 15% of toxic exposure.
  

The remainder of funds are recommended according to the adopted ranking methodol-ogy for CNG buses as shown in Attachment 1. The number of buses requested by each applicant is shown in Attachment 2. Based on these criteria, a detailed list of the rank-ings for all the applicants requesting CNG buses is shown in Attachments 3.

Staff recommends the approval of school bus replacement awards for 38 CNG buses as shown in Table 3. The recommended list shows school districts awarded both under AB 1390 (Firebaugh) and school districts awarded under point ranking system starting with school districts with the highest-ranking points in each county, continuing in descending order. Every public school district having applied for school bus replacement has been awarded at least one bus.

Purchase prices including sales tax and any applicable procurement fees have been dis-cussed and confirmed with the bus vendors. However, if any of these parameters change during the execution of the grant agreements, the AQMD will grant any avail-able funds to the next eligible applicant from the point-ranking list.

Staff also recommends the approval of 237 PM traps for awards to public school dis-tricts and private school bus operators as shown in Tables 4 and 5 respectively. A list of all the applicants with the number of the traps requested is shown in the same tables. Due to oversubscription of funds for the PM trap awards, preference was given to public school districts over private school bus operators.

Table 3: CNG School Bus Replacement & Infrastructure Recommendation List

Table 4: PM Traps Recommendation List for Public School Districts

Table 5: PM traps Recommendation List for Private School Bus Operators

Table 6: CNG School Bus Replacement & Infrastructure Recommendation List Funded by Potential EPA Funding

Table 7: PM traps Recommendation List for Private School Bus Operators with
Potential EPA Funding

ATTACHMENT 1

RANKING CRITERIA FOR CNG SCHOOL BUS FUNDING

ATTACHMENT 2: NUMBER OF REQUESTED BUSES

ATTACHMENT 3: FINAL RANKING FOR SCHOOL BUS APPLICATIONS

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