GILROY
– Children riding inside school buses may be exposed to
dangerous levels of air pollution. A local activist calling
attention to the issue says Gilroy Unified School District is on
the right track to fixing the problem.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Children riding inside school buses may be exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution. A local activist calling attention to the issue says Gilroy Unified School District is on the right track to fixing the problem.
However, citing recent studies, Chris Cote asked district officials to do more to improve air quality inside school buses, which is often worse than it is outside.
“School buses are significantly contributing to adverse health effects that children are experiencing today,” said Cote, who has a niece and nephew in Gilroy schools. “Particularly, according to the American Lung Association, an accelerated incidence of asthma, allergies and other respiratory diseases in young children.”
The ALA study, published in March, also associates cancer and heart problems with exposure to diesel exhaust and says there is no known safe level of exposure.
High levels of in-bus pollution come from driving through polluted areas or behind high-emmitting vehicles and from a bus’s own exhaust, according to a study conducted by the California Air Resources Board of the Environmental Protection Agency.
“Gilroy’s been doing a fairly good job in trying to remediate the problem in the past few years,” Cote said.
GUSD has a fleet of 35 buses. It purchased 16 of those within the past 18 months, according to Steve Brinkman, assistant superintendent of administrative services.
Newer buses, like those most recently purchased by GUSD, emit significantly less pollutants than older buses, as stated in the EPA study.
Six of the district’s new buses are also equipped with pollution controls known as particulate traps, which greatly reduce on-board pollutants.
The highest-polluting buses are those manufactured before 1987, of which GUSD has none. Buses produced between 1987 and 1991 – of which GUSD has four – are the next greatest concern. The rest of Gilroy’s school busses were built after 1991.
“As we discover funding sources to replace older buses, we will continue our commitment to reduce pollutants,” Brinkman said.
Cote wants parents to know that bus emissions are affecting their children and urges them to get involved in finding alternative solutions.
“I don’t think (the district has) a lot of leeway, but there are steps we can take within the budget to do something,” Cote said.
He recommended expanding the use of “green diesel,” an alternative fuel that has a lower sulfur content and therefore fewer emissions than standard diesel. Cote suggested that GUSD partner with businesses or Morgan Hill Unified School District, which he said has an older bus fleet than Gilroy, to bring more of the fuel to town.
“It’s not economically feasible to bring it down here just for Gilroy Unified,” Cote said.
Another way to protect students, he said, would be to operate the least polluting buses on the longest routes. A contract agreement with bus drivers could prevent that from happening.
“Those with more seniority get the first call on the buses and where they drive, and that makes it a little more difficult to affect changes,” Brinkman said.
This is not the first time Cote and the district have had bus issues. Last year, Cote settled a 13-year-old lawsuit filed by GUSD when his former transportation service company failed to provide bus transportation for Gilroy students after being paid for the field trips.
Cote also led an effort to remove cell towers from Luigi Aprea Elementary School last year.
