EPA awards $1.4 million in grants to cut diesel emissions

Aug. 22 -- The Environmental Protection Agency announced Aug. 22 that it would award $1.4 million in grants to reduce diesel emissions.

The grants will help leverage more than $5.8 million in matching funds to curb diesel pollution in the western United States, according to the EPA.

The grants will fund 16 projects in California, Oregon and Washington as part of the West Coast Collaborative, a partnership between federal, state and local governments, corporations and environmental groups.

The EPA presented the first of the grants, for $211,000, to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District for a construction equipment retrofit demonstration project. Other pubic and industry partners will provide $774,000 in matching funds.

The funding will pay for retrofitting five pieces of heavy-duty equipment -- such as loaders, backhoes and excavators -- with new emission reduction technology.

The project will evaluate the success of the technology and the amount of reductions achieved for particulate matter and other emissions. Once emission reductions are verified, the technology could be made available for use on a wide variety of diesel-fueled vehicles, according to the EPA.

Partners in the first project include the Air Quality Management District and Cleaire Advanced Emission Controls LLC, of San Leanrdo, Calif.