Reducing diesel emissions is a national priority for the Environmental Protection Agency's National Clean Diesel Campaign, which awards funding to states each year for clean diesel projects.
"Maryland is already tackling diesel pollution with projects that are lessening emissions from school and transit buses, municipal fleets, trucks and port equipment," said James W. Newsom, acting deputy administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's mid-Atlantic region.
Each year, diesel vehicles produce 46,000 tons of soot emissions in Maryland. Recovery funding from EPA will help reduce diesel emissions from marine vessels, construction equipment, drayage trucks and garbage trucks, the EPA said.
The program funds replacement of old diesel engines with cleaner-burning engines, retrofitting vehicles and equipment with filters to reduce particulates, closed crankcase ventilation filtration devices and projects to lessen the idling of buses.
Diesel-powered dredging equipment used by the Maryland Port Administration and Maryland Environmental Service has been retrofitted with diesel particulate filters to cut emissions by more 90 percent.
