JEFFERSON CITY, MO - The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently received a $1,872,739 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to fund a number of diesel emission reduction projects throughout the state.

This grant, which is named the Missouri Green Fleet Project, will greatly reduce diesel emissions in three target areas of the state: St. Louis, Kansas City, and the Springfield/southwest Missouri areas.

The department will issue subgrants to St. Louis Regional Clean Cities, the Mid-America Regional Council and the Ozark Center for Sustainable Solutions at Drury University to implement a variety of projects aimed at reducing diesel emissions in the target areas of the state.

The subgrants are distributed as follows:

St. Louis Regional Clean Cities: $477,800. The St. Louis area project will include retrofitting 197 school buses with fuel-operated heaters, which help provide heat for a school bus without requiring the bus to idle first. Reducing idling times in school districts will help reduce bus operating costs and improve the quality of the air to which students are exposed, according to the DNR.

Mid-America Regional Council: $611,394. The Kansas City area project will include retrofitting 169 school buses with fuel-operated heaters, replacing an old school bus with a new bus that will meet 2010 emission standards, and retrofitting three switch engine locomotives with auxiliary power units and automatic engine shutdown/startup devices to reduce the amount of time spent idling.

Ozark Center for Sustainable Solutions at Drury University: $739,200. The southwest Missouri area project will include retrofitting 118 school buses operating in the area with fuel-operated heaters or diesel oxidation catalysts, replacing eight older school buses with brand new buses that will meet 2010 emission standards and retrofitting 14 trash trucks and 45 concrete mixers with diesel oxidation catalysts.

The projects are expected to keep nearly 13,000 tons of diesel emissions from entering Missouri's air through the life of the buses, locomotives, and other diesel equipment that will be replaced or retrofitted, according to the DNR.