AG HEALEY SETTLES
WITH SCHOOL BUS COMPANY OVER UNNECESSARY IDLING AT NEW BEDFORD SCHOOLS;
LAUNCHES PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO CURB ILLEGAL IDLING
AG’s Clean Air
Initiative Includes Information for Schools, Online Illegal Idling Reporting
Form
BOSTON – Attorney General
Maura Healey has reached a settlement with a New Bedford-based school
bus company over allegations that its drivers excessively idled their buses at
several New Bedford schools. As part of AG Healey’s Clean Air Initiative, the
office also launched a new public information campaign about potential health
hazards associated with illegal idling of motor vehicles, particularly
diesel-powered school buses. Today’s announcement includes a new online tip form
for residents to report incidents and a letter to public
school officials with information about the state’s anti-idling laws and
regulations.
“With the new school year starting, we want to make sure
the public is aware of the serious dangers posed by emissions from
diesel-powered vehicles and give our residents and our schools the tools they
need to prevent and report illegal idling,” AG Healey said. “Our office,
through the work of our Clean Air Initiative, is dedicated to protecting
environmental justice communities in Massachusetts from air pollution hazards
and will take action against companies that violate our laws. Protecting the
health and safety of our residents, especially young children, remains a top
priority.”
The AG’s Clean Air Initiative is focused on tackling air pollution that
disproportionately impacts environmental justice communities in Massachusetts
that are already overburdened with environmental harm. Diesel exhaust can be
carcinogenic to humans when inhaled from environmental exposures, and diesel
engines are a source of fine particulate matter emissions, nitrogen oxides,
sulfur dioxide, volatile organic compounds, and many other toxic compounds, as
well as 40 other contaminants that are listed as hazardous air
pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Inhaling
diesel exhaust can cause cancer, aggravated asthma, lung damage, and other
serious health problems and is especially harmful to children, whose lungs are
not yet fully developed. The significant risks from idling vehicles are particularly prevalent in
low-income and immigrant communities and communities of color in Massachusetts.
According to AG Healey’s May 2020 brief on the environmental
factors that compound COVID-19’s disparate impact on communities of color,
long-term exposure to particulate matter has been linked to an increase in
COVID-19 deaths.
Settlement with Tremblay’s Bus Company
The proposed consent decree, filed with the United District Court for the
District of Massachusetts and pending court approval, settles allegations that
Tremblay’s Bus Co., LLC (Tremblay) violated the Federal Clean Air Act, the Massachusetts Clean Air Act, the Massachusetts Air Regulations, and the School Grounds Idling Regulations when its bus
drivers routinely allowed diesel-powered buses to idle unnecessarily for
prolonged periods of time – often for more than 20 minutes – on school grounds
in densely populated, environmental justice communities. According to the AG’s
complaint, the company failed to take necessary precautions to prevent the
illegal idling on school grounds, including proper training of its drivers,
allowing the buses to emit air pollution that posed a health risk to children
on the school grounds.
Tremblay has provided bus transportation in Southeast Massachusetts for
more than 40 years and owns and operates more than 250 buses that transport
children to and from schools. According to the AG’s complaint, Tremblay
operates diesel-powered school buses and other vehicles to transport children
to schools – many of which are located in environmental justice communities.
Under the terms of the settlement, pending court approval, Tremblay will pay
a penalty of up to $120,000, including $100,000 that will be split equally
between the Friends of Buttonwood Park and the Greater New Bedford Community
Health Center. The Friends of Buttonwood Park will use the funds for tree
planting in the Park and trail building by local community youth groups. The
Greater New Bedford Community Health Center will put the funds toward pediatric
asthma prevention, including through in-home programs for the hundreds of
families with severely asthmatic children in New Bedford. Tremblay will also
pay $45,000 to the AG’s Office for the cost of the investigation and fees.
Under the proposed consent decree, Tremblay also will be required to comply
with state and federal clean air laws and regulations by avoiding unnecessary
and excessive idling of school buses, to train its staff on anti-idling
regulations, to install idling-monitoring devices on buses, to post “no
excessive idling” signs at all Tremblay locations and on the dashboards of all
company school buses, and to perform regular inspections of its facility.
This matter is
being handled by Assistant Attorney General Brian Clappier and Deputy Division
Chief Turner Smith of the AG’s Environmental Protection Division, with
assistance from Jennifer Outman and John Flemmi of the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Protection.
Online Illegal Idling Form and Letter to School Officials
To help the public report incidents of potential illegal idling, the AG’s
Office has created an online form to alert the office of idling
that may warrant further investigation. Parents, school officials, and other
residents who observe vehicles idling unnecessarily can anonymously report
their observations to help the office identify violators of the Commonwealth’s
important anti-idling laws and regulations.
The AG’s Office also sent a letter to school
superintendents across the state to inform them about the public health risks
and laws limiting school bus idling. The letter notes that diesel exhaust
contributes to air pollution that can cause serious respiratory and other
illnesses. Diesel exhaust can be especially harmful to
children, whose lungs are not yet fully developed. Massachusetts laws
prohibit school bus drivers from idling buses for longer than five minutes and
within 100 feet of school grounds, with the exception of very cold or hot
weather and where the layout of school grounds necessitates sequential, active
loading.
The AG’s Office suggests the following steps for schools to help reduce
illegal idling:
- Contact
transportation providers and ask them to provide a copy of their
anti-idling policies and monitor their compliance with those policies. If
they do not have an anti-idling policy, insist that they establish one.
- Limit
students’ outdoor waiting time during drop off and pickup.
- Provide
information to teachers who often assist with school bus drop off and
pickup.
- Provide
information to parents about the anti-idling laws and regulations in
school newsletters.
- Ask all
bus companies to install dashboard stickers on their fleet of buses and
street signage near idling hot-spots. Examples of anti-idling signs are available through the Massachusetts Department
of Environmental Protection.
As part of the Clean Air Initiative, AG Healey in April launched an air quality monitoring project in Springfield in collaboration with the City of Springfield, Yale University, the Public
Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, Bay State Health, ReGreen Springfield,
and other community organizations and members. The project includes 80 air
quality sensors installed across Springfield – an environmental justice
community with one of the highest rates of asthma in the country – and the
levels of pollution found by the sensors will be available in real-time on a
website in the coming months. The air quality data will allow residents to take
the necessary precautions to protect themselves from exposure.
The AG’s Clean Air
Initiative is an effort of the Office’s Environmental Protection Division, led
by Division Chief Betsy Harper and Deputy Division Chief Turner Smith, to
tackle air pollution across the Commonwealth, particularly in environmental
justice communities.
