Schools Stop Idling to Save the Earth
Students from West Geauga High School work on stenciling the parking lot with “no-idling” reminders. Pictured are (left to right) Kelli Wright, Mariah Wright, Claire Slusarz, Zak Kucera, Clay McMullen and Shawn Cooper.
A car that idles for 10 minutes uses as much fuel as it takes to travel five miles and burns more than 27 gallons of fuel annually. For every gallon of gas a car consumes, 20 pounds of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. These emissions account for one third of all greenhouse gases.
Do you need more reasons to turn off your car while you are waiting? Idling for longer than 10 seconds wastes fuel and is no more effective than turning an engine that is warm off and then on again. Internal combustion engines in cars are not the only threat to the environment. Diesel engines, such as those found in school buses, are also a problem.
A school bus that idles for one hour per day for the entire school year will have 1,260 miles of additional engine wear just from idling, or as many miles as it would travel on a trip from Cleveland to the Florida Everglades. This wear causes an engine to die faster, thus costing the school more money from its already paper-thin budget. Another issue of cost is the fuel that a bus consumes by idling. Idling not only causes excessive engine wear, but it also dirties the engine. Because dirty engines do not burn fuel at the optimum temperature, the injectors and oil become fouled, making another avoidable expenditure necessary.
In addition, idling needlessly releases more than 40 different pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, lead, benzene and formaldehyde into the environment. Many of these pollutants are carcinogens and the dirt particles are detrimental to people’s lungs. The pollutants released by idling cycle back into the vehicles from whence they came, causing a lot of potential harm to anyone inside. Nine percent of all school-age children have asthma, so these students are especially vulnerable to poor air quality. Idling doesn’t just hurt people inside of vehicles. Anyone in the general vicinity of an idling engine will breathe in the contaminated air that it puts out.
These few facts illustrate that idling is a major problem; however, this problem can be solved without a major effort. The summer between my freshman and sophomore years at West Geauga High School, I decided that something had to be done to stop idling on my school’s campus because idling can cause harm to vehicles, people and the environment. The school board already had a
no-idling policy in place, but it had become defunct so I fought to bring it back. I consulted with superintendent Anthony Podojil, and we not only restored the no bus idling policy, but we also added a no-idle policy for cars. By doing this, we ensured that the West Geauga upper campus would be a much cleaner, healthier place. I designed “West G is Idle Free” signs for the schools, sent flyers home to parents and stenciled parking lots with no idling reminders.
West Geauga High School sophomore Clay McMullen measures particulates in the air with a portable monitoring device.
I worked with Ken Loparo, professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University and applied for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Diesel School Bus Retrofit Grant. West Geauga Local Schools were awarded $64,274.64 in grant funding in November 2009 to buy 10 diesel multi-stage filters, six closed crankcase filters for the engines and one diesel oxidation catalyst filter. These filters will be installed on West Geauga’s transportation fleet to clean the air inside the buses and trap the emissions in the environment. The DMF filters can reduce emissions by up to 60 percent. I tested the air quality before the “West G is Idle Free” program was implemented and I will test emissions again after the filters are installed to see what the reduction in emissions will be. If the results are significant, as I predict them to be, I will apply for more grants to retrofit the entire transportation fleet.
If others want to improve air quality at their schools, I recommend talking to school board members and superintendents. In my experience, I found unanimous support for my ideas because they saved money and equipment, and they improved the air quality at the school and on the buses. In addition, voluntary compliance with no idling policies is a no-cost solution to air pollution. Most school districts can apply for funding to purchase particulate filters for their fleet. The application deadline for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s next school bus retrofit grants, used for obtaining diesel particulate filters, is March 1. If testing has been done to justify the need for air particulate filters, it would assist in getting the grant. Idling is an unnecessary action that wastes money and fuel while hurting the environment and our lungs. Fight to improve air quality and save your wallets, your environment and yourselves.
For more information, visit www.epa.state.oh.us/oeef/schoolbus.aspx.