The Herald Opinion, Thursday, June 2

Thumbs Up to ‘Green’ Diesel

An alliance between the Plainville school system and the DATTCO bus company deserves a rare midweek thumbs up. The New Britain-based company will provide Plainville with about 35 new “green” diesel school buses next fall as part of a five-year contract agreement.

The buses will include special catalytic converters, particulate filters and operate on ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. The system will cut nitrogen oxide emissions about 25 percent and reduce hydrocarbon and sooty, particulate emissions to near-zero levels, according to International Truck and Engine Corporation, which manufactures the new engines.

“They say it’s so clean you can hold a handkerchief up to the exhaust and it stays white,” said Alan Schultz, Plainville’s school business manufacturer.

The new buses are good news for children at Toffolon School, where the procession of after-school buses lining up outside the building each afternoon produces plumes of diesel exhaust that have been known to spill into the ventilation system, and at Wheeler Elementary School, where staff has also complained about diesel fumes.

And it’s good news for children who are sensitive to environmental ills, especially those with asthma.

The new system is slightly more expensive so Plainville deserves praise for taking this step.

“To have a cleaner environment and solve air problems at two of our buildings, it’s certainly worth the differential in fuel cost,” Schultz said.