SACRAMENTO – The Air Resources Board this month awarded $8.2 million to expedite cleanup of dirty diesel engines via projects that improve air quality in more than one of California's 35 air districts.

Winning projects funded under the state's Carl Moyer Program are based up and down the state, and include companies based in Northern and Southern California, Sacramento, Las Vegas and the San Joaquin Valley.

"The Carl Moyer program has a long history of innovation and success," said ARB Chairman Mary Nichols. "The funding helps air districts improve air quality and meet federal deadlines, while also providing businesses with incentives to invest in and demonstrate advanced emission control technologies. And of course, the public benefits by having cleaner air to breathe."

To qualify for Carl Moyer monies, projects must provide early or extra emission reductions. Each project grant is administered through the local air district where the project is based.

Over its first seven years (1998-2005), the Carl Moyer Program provided $170 million to clean up approximately 7,500 engines throughout California, reducing about 24 tons per day of smog-forming oxides of nitrogen and one ton per day of toxic diesel particulate matter.

Smog can exacerbate a variety of cardiovascular and respiratory conditions such as heart disease and asthma, while diesel particulate matter was recognized as a cancer-causing health risk in 1998.

This year, the ARB received over $39 million in requests for $8.2 million in available multi-district project funding. Projects were scored based on factors including cost-effectiveness, regulatory jurisdiction, environmental justice considerations and project schedule.

The 2007-08 multi-district projects are expected over their lifetime to reduce smog-forming and diesel particulate emissions by 2,184 tons.

Eligible projects fall into categories including on-road, off-road, marine and locomotive. This year, on-road projects accounted for $1,889,933 of the available funding. Off-road projects totaled $792,916, marine $844,179, and locomotive efforts utilized the lion's share at $4,749,161.

The projects selected for FY 2007-08 Carl Moyer Program Multi-District Funding are shown in the table below.

(*The asterisk on the marine and locomotive projects indicate that even though they do not appear to be multidistrict, the projects are so large that they automatically impact more than one air district.)