CleanAIR Systems, Inc. Awarded Contract to Retrofit School Buses with Emission Control Systems in Puget Sound

Project will reduce emissions of harmful diesel particulates by more than 90 percent

Santa Fe, NM – November 28, 2001 - CleanAIR Systems, Inc. recently was awarded a contract with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency to retrofit school buses with diesel particulate filters and oxidation converters in Everett, Wash. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is funding the Everett Clean Diesel School Bus Retrofit Project, the first voluntary initiative under the agency’s Diesel Solutions Program, through a grant received from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It is among the first EPA-funded, on-road retrofit projects to be executed.

“We are proud to participate in this project to help the community of Puget Sound improve its air quality,” said CleanAIR Systems President Michael Roach. “By the end of this year, hundreds of Everett school children will be riding to school on some of the cleanest buses in the world.”

CleanAIR Systems was selected from among other major manufacturers of emission control systems to supply products for this pilot program. The company will equip some of the school buses with its PERMIT™ filter, and others with its ASSURE™ converter. The PERMIT™ filter reduces particulate emissions by 85 percent, and carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by more than 90 percent. The ASSURE™ converter reduces carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by more than 90 percent, and particulates by 10 to 50 percent. In addition, the buses will be fueled with ultra-low-sulfur fuel. CleanAIR Systems is working with Durham School Services, owner of the bus fleet and the third largest student transportation contractor in the nation, to retrofit the buses by the end of 2001.

“The Everett Clean Diesel School Bus Retrofit Project is very important to us because it will demonstrate how a school bus fleet in our region can be made dramatically cleaner through the use of cleaner fuels and advanced technology retrofit devices,” said Dennis McLerran, executive director of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. “We are very excited about being able to demonstrate to school districts that these fuels and retrofit devices can make a big difference in how clean their fleets are. There is a growing understanding that diesel exhaust is a health hazard, especially to children, and this project will give very real benefits immediately to the school kids who ride on and play near these buses.”

As part of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s Diesel Solutions Program, the Everett Clean Diesel School Bus Retrofit Project is the first of seven projects to be carried out. The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which serves King, Kitsap, Pierce and Snohomish counties in Washington, launched its Diesel Solutions program this year to make diesel vehicles in the region dramatically cleaner. The Diesel Solutions Program aims to reduce particulate emissions by 436 tons per year over the next five years. According to the agency, this would reduce 1,505 cases of respiratory symptoms in asthmatic children annually, and prevent 30 to 34 premature deaths each year.

Until this year, parts of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s four-county region had been on the EPA’s nonattainment list because levels of carbon monoxide, ozone and particulate matter persistently exceeded the national ambient air quality standards. The EPA has established maximum concentrations for these priority pollutants, above which adverse health effects may occur. Although no longer classified as nonattainment, the area is now close to exceeding limits for particulate matter and ozone.