County, businesses avail themselves of VW settlement funding
Road & Bridge Director Steve Klatt discusses the Volkswagen settlement with the state of Idaho.
SANDPOINT — Several government agencies and businesses in Bonner County are seeking funding from a settlement between the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and automaker Volkswagen.
Bonner County commissioners approved an agreement Tuesday to replace three local freight trucks with three Western Star 4700 trucks. The trucks to be taken out of service are two diesel dump trucks and a diesel tractor-trailer, according to DEQ records.
"This is a discussion that we’ve been having over some period of time on the Volkswagen settlement that the state administered through DEQ. It’s a 40-percent rebate on three different trucks that we would take completely out of service," Road & Bridge Director Steve Klatt told commissioners.
The replacement project is slated to cost $587,018 and the 40-percent rebate from VW would lower the funding request to $234,807, DEQ records show.
The U.S. and the state of California filed a lawsuit against VW in 2016 in connection with allegations that the company was selling cars with systems intended to defeat emission tests. These systems allowed vehicles to emit nitrogen oxide pollution at levels 40 times the amounts allowed under the federal Clean Air Act.
Volkswagen agreed to settle the violations by entering into an environmental mitigation trust agreement with all U.S. states, in addition to Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
The West Bonner County School District is also availing itself of the vehicle buyback program to replace two of its buses. The district is seeking a 25-percent rebate on the $200,996 replacement project according to DEQ.
Two Bonner County businesses — Wes Olson Trucking and AmeriGas Propane LP — are also seeking funding from the VW settlement. Olson Trucking is putting in for a 25-percent rebate to replace four diesel logging trucks, while AmeriGas is looking to replace six diesel tractor trailers with the aid of a 12-percent rebate, DEQ records indicate.
The city of Bonners Ferry, meanwhile, is seeking grant funding to install a fast-charging station for electric vehicles at a visitor's center off U.S. Highway 95.
The state of Idaho is currently allocated $17 million from the mitigation trust, DEQ said.