FRESNO (KMJ) — Nearly $6 million of Federal money is now in the hands of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to help replace inefficient tractors and wood burning stoves.
“There’s efficiency to be gained, there’s fuel to be saved”, says the district’s Heather Heinks
“In this case the money is directed specifically for agricultural tractors and for wood burning devices that go in residential homes”.
“We will distribute that money to the public directly based on applications and replace those devices so we can improve air quality”.
The money has come from the EPA, and it’s hoped it’ll bring down fine particulate matter in the air by nearly 90% through replacement tractors, and 50% through replacement stoves.
“These are real things that can help you every single day and they have lots of benefits so if you have a wood stove in your home right now that’s old, a lot of that smoke and pollution – you’re breathing it in”, says the agency’s Jared Blumenfeld. “It’s not good for you”.
He adds that the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District put forward some convincing arguments to the EPA.
“Of the total pot of money, San Joaquin Valley is getting half of it. A full half of the national money that was competed out”.
“They did the best proposals the most compelling case and they’re going to do work that really cleans up the air”.
The nearly $6 million will be spent on replacing 2,484 residential wood burning devices, and approximately 187 agricultural tractors.
If you’d like to apply for funding, click here for the link to apply for the replacement stove grant and click here for the link to apply for the replacement tractor grant.
KMJ’s Dominic McAndrew was there, and you can hear his report as it aired on KMJ:
