Bob Knickerbocker , chief mechanic for the Amphitheater School District, checks the oil on one of the district's 130 buses. The district received a grant that will pay to retrofit nine of the buses with diesel-oxidation catalysts, which help reduce pollutants emitted by buses and preserve the air quality around schools and bus-loading zones.

Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star

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Amphitheater Public Schools' effort to reduce emissions from its bus fleet received a boost last month when it was awarded a grant to install pollution filters on several of its buses.

The district received a grant — worth approximately $82,000 — from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality in September.

By retrofitting nine buses with diesel-oxidation catalysts, the district will reduce pollutants emitted by its buses, which take 6,800 students to and from school each day.

"What these diesel-oxidation catalysts do is remove 85 percent of the diesel emission in those series of buses," said Marc Lappitt, the district's director of transportation.

A catalyst breaks down pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, during a chemical process and expels less harmful components through the bus's exhaust stream.

Lappitt said buses produced from 1994 through 2002 are eligible for the addition. Buses coming off the assembly line in 2007 will come with the device, Lappitt said.

Lappitt expects the catalysts to be installed during the winter or summer break.

It's only a start, Lappitt said, as the grant is enough to retrofit only nine of the district's 130 buses with a catalyst.

"Ideally, to have most of the buses or even a large percentage would have been more measurable," he said.

Lappitt said the district will apply for the grant again if it's offered next year.

Currently, Amphi's buses run on ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, which is a cleaner-burning diesel fuel, and the district has regulated the amount of time drivers can let buses idle.

Lappitt said Amphi was the first school district in Southern Arizona to implement an idle-reduction program. One of the things the program does is limit the amount of time drivers can idle in school zones — no more than two minutes.

"You can imagine when you're loading in the afternoon at a school and all the buses are cued, it's a lot of exhaust to put in the atmosphere," Lappitt said.

Children inhale that exhaust, which is why Amphi is taking the initiative to reduce emissions.

Fine particles such as dust and soot released by diesel engines can cause aggravated asthma and lung damage.

"We're carrying students," Lappitt said. "The asthma rates in Tucson are sky-high, and as the area expands, the air is getting more and more full of exhaust."

In a school-bus pollution report card issued by the Union of Concerned Scientists this year, Arizona received a "D" for estimated tailpipe emissions of soot.

Despite the mark, Colleen Crowninshield, manager of the Pima Association of Governments' Clean Cities program, said it has been difficult for school districts in the area to acquire grants to ease air pollution.

Because Pima County's air quality meets the standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is difficult for school districts in the county to secure funding.

Before obtaining the grant in September, Amphi had tried unsuccessfully for three years to land one.

"Grants and funding usually go to the cities that are not in attainment," Crowninshield said.

The Pima County Department of Environmental Quality monitors five pollutants. Those pollutants must not exceed the standards set by the EPA.

Beth Gorman, a program manager with the county's department of environmental quality, said that if Amphi has a positive experience with the devices, then other districts could follow and upgrade their own buses.

"Hopefully, this will be a growing trend," Gorman said. "It helps the air for the entire community."

The EPA recently toughened its standard for the daily allowable amount of fine particles in the air, reducing the amount by nearly 50 percent, from 65 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air to 35.

Gorman said the county is below the new standard, but efforts like Amphi's will help.