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John Hollenhorst ReportingThe Davis School District is launching a project to clean up fumes from some of its older school buses. It's one of the few districts in the country to do that, thanks to a seemingly unrelated pollution problem at a nearby oil refinery.
The connection may not be obvious between allegations of illegal pollution he Chevron refinery and school bus fumes miles away. It's one of those things that makes sense only in the world of government regulation. But the result should be cleaner air for kids to breathe.
Beginning next year, new school buses will be required to have the latest pollution controls, but old buses won't have to comply and can continue to pollute.
Brian Larsen, Davis School District, Transportation Director: "It's a health issue to all of us that breathe air in Davis County."
Davis School District suddenly has money to fix some of the old buses voluntarily -- $200,000 should clean up about 50 of them.
Brian Larsen: "We were very pleased. It's something that every school district I think wants to do. But it's just matter of getting the funds to do it."
The money is from Chevron, part of a legal settlement with the federal government. Years ago the EPA accused Chevron refineries in four states of illegally polluting the air.
Mark Buckon, Chevron Refinery, Environmental Team Leader: "Chevron did not agree with the EPA's assertions. However, in the best interest of the company and its shareholders, Chevron entered into a dialogue with the EPA and negotiated a settlement."
The settlement included a little bit of money for community environment projects, like the Davis buses. Chevron also agreed to spend a lot more money, 275 million dollars, to clean up the refineries.
Mark Buckon: "Upgrading some furnaces, adding sulfur recovery capacity, producing cleaner burning fuels is part of it as well."
Utah regulators agreed to the arrangement on the theory that a settlement would accomplish more than a long court battle.
Davis schoolkids were innocent bystanders to the legal process, but they may notice the effect.
Brian Larsen: "Probably when the buses are idling in front of the schools for the short time, as they do, they would notice a little bit cleaner atmosphere there."
Really, the point is cleaner air for everybody. The EPA expects overall emissions by Chevron to drop by almost 10,000 tons of pollutants each year. By the way, the company did agree to pay a fine -- 3.5 million dollars.
