EPA awards $1.2 Million to Washington tribes to help protect communities from harmful diesel emissions
EPA is awarding $5.4 million in grants nationwide for tribal and insular areas
Seattle (June 22, 2022)- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has awarded $1,254,919 in Diesel Emission Reduction Act funding to federally recognized tribes in Washington to reduce harmful emissions from stationary diesel generators and marine vessels.
The grants fund engine replacement projects with the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Quinault Indian Nation, and the Lummi Indian Business Council.
“The Biden Administration continues to work with Tribal nations across the country to replace or upgrade older, higher polluting diesel engines, making important progress in reducing pollution and advancing environmental justice across the country,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “With an unprecedented $5 billion investment in low- and zero-emission school buses from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law coming soon for communities across the country, this is only the beginning.”
“EPA is proud to work with our tribal partners to achieve cleaner air and improve people’s health in their communities,” said EPA Region 10 Administrator, Casey Sixkiller. “Diesel pollution can lead to high rates of asthma and other health conditions, and these projects will make a real difference in the air quality for tribal communities.”
Nationally, 12 tribal and insular area assistance agreements totaling $5.4 million are expected to be awarded as part of the Diesel Emissions Reduction program. DERA funds projects to clean up the Nation’s legacy fleet of diesel engines. The projects will replace non-tiered and low tiered engines with more efficient, higher tiered engines. Tier 4 is generally the most efficient tier for engines used off-road, and Tier 3 is the most efficient for on-road engines.
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community
The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community received $379,511 to replace three Tier-2 marine diesel engines with new Tier-3 engines in the sixth phase of the Tribe’s Marine Engine Repower project. The engines will be operated within the SITC area and parts of Skagit County. The SITC Marine Engine Repower Project has been a multi-phase project with previous DERA awards in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
The Quinault Indian Nation
The Quinault Indian Nation received $510,508 to replace three Tier-0 marine engines operating within the Quinault Indian Nation with new Tier-3 diesel marine engines on two tribal fishing vessels. The QIN Clean Marine Fishing Fleet Project has been a multi-phase project with previous DERA awards in 2019, 2020, and 2021.
These engines will be used within and around the Quinault Indian Reservation in Grays Harbor County.
Lummi Indian Business Council
The Lummi Tribe of the Lummi Reservation in western Washington received $364,900 to replace four diesel marine engines on four fishing fleet vessels. Approximately 50 percent of the Lummi fishing fleet is comprised of heavily used engines over 20 years old that run an average of 1,000 hours per year near the cities of Bellingham and Ferndale.
Replacing the older engines with more efficient ones will reduce diesel emissions and associated negative health effects for at-risk populations.
The DERA program
These DERA grants are administered by EPA's West Coast Collaborative, a clean air public-private partnership in EPA’s Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest regions. Since 2008, EPA’s DERA program has awarded nearly 700 grants across the U.S. in 600 communities. Many of these projects fund cleaner diesel engines that operate in economically disadvantaged communities whose residents suffer from higher-than-average rates of asthma, heart and lung disease. These projects have reduced emissions from more than 66,000 engines.
The DERA program is prioritizing projects that help achieve the goals of President Biden’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that federal agencies deliver at least 40% of benefits from certain investments to underserved communities.
To learn more about all of this year's West Coast Collaborative DERA projects, visit: http://www.westcoastcollaborative.org.
For more information about EPA's National Clean Diesel campaign and the awarded Tribal DERA projects nationally, visit www.epa.gov/cleandiesel.
To learn more about the EPA’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality which funds the DERA program, visit: https://www.epa.gov/air-pollution-transportation.