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AQMD Approves Clean-Technology Grants for San Bernardino
and Boyle Heights
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December 2, 2011
To help implement its Clean Communities Plan, the South Coast AQMD today
approved three grant programs to help reduce air pollution and toxic air
contaminants in the City of San Bernardino and Boyle Heights.
Grants are available to schools, day care centers, government entities and
vehicle maintenance shops that switch to more environmentally friendly
cleaners and paints.
“This funding helps accelerate pollution reduction strategies in two
communities that are heavily impacted by air pollution and air toxics,” said
William A. Burke, Ed.D., AQMD’s Governing Board Chairman. “We encourage
those eligible to take advantage of this opportunity to save money and help
improve air quality in their communities.”
Today’s action will help implement three incentive programs to help reduce
exposures to toxic and smog-forming air pollution in the City of San
Bernardino and Boyle Heights from commercial cleaning products, paints, and
industrial solvents. The programs will help further the goals of AQMD’s
Clean Communities Plan, adopted in November 2010 to reduce cumulative
impacts of air pollution and air toxics throughout the Southland.
The three incentive programs include:
Green Cleaner Program: Up to $100 per unit is available for the purchase and
installation of green cleaning product systems. Schools, daycare centers,
and government entities are eligible and incentives are available from
manufacturers selling AQMD-approved cleaning products.
Super-Compliant Paint Program: Incentives of up to one-third the total cost
difference, or up to$12 per gallon, are available for schools and government
entities that switch from conventional paints to super-compliant coatings –
those which contain less than 10 grams per liter of volatile organic
compounds. Preference will be given to projects that encapsulate structures
with lead-based paint applied prior to 1978.
Vehicle Repair Shop Brake Cleaning Program: Up to $500 is available for
vehicle maintenance shops to purchase and install a qualifying aqueous brake
cleaning system to replace polluting brake cleaning solvent in aerosol cans.
Each system will help replace an average of 600 cans of brake cleaner each
year.
A list of AQMD-approved cleaning products, super-compliant coatings and
qualifying brake cleaners is available at
www.aqmd.gov.
All three programs will help reduce smog-forming and toxic air contaminants
in these communities. Funding comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency’s Targeted Air Shed Grant program to help reduce air pollution and
toxic emissions in federal non-attainment areas across the nation. A total
of $390,000 is available for the three programs, which will continue through
December 2013.
Additional grant programs also available in San Bernardino and Boyle Heights
include incentives for auto refinishing spray equipment, commercial boiler
retrofits, residential fireplace gas log replacement and lawnmower exchange,
and commercial leaf blower exchange.
The 2010 Clean Communities Plan is an update to AQMD’s Air Toxics Control
Plan initially developed in 2000. The incentive programs are part of the
plan’s pilot study being conducted in San Bernardino and Boyle Heights to
address cumulative impacts for air pollution, including air toxics.
For more information, visit
www.aqmd.gov/aqmp/CCP.html or contact Naveen Berry at (909) 396-2363.
In other action today, AQMD’s Board:
• Approved $4.5 million for the repowering of six locomotives at the
Burlington Northern Santa Fe Hobart rail yard in Commerce, which processes
about 1.5 million shipping containers a year. Funding comes from the state’s
Prop. 1B Goods Movement Program; and
• Directed staff to seek proposals for the development and demonstration of
zero-emission goods movement transportation systems using linear motor
technology. The project is Phase 1 of a multi-phase program to increase the
use of zero-emission technologies for goods movement transportation.
AQMD is the air pollution control agency for Orange County and major
portions of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
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This page updated:
December 02, 2011
URL: http://www.aqmd.gov/news1/2011/bs12_2_11.htm
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