Press Contact: Sophie Cardona: (212) 361-2400, ext. 244 , or email cardona@informinc.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, March 23, 1999

INFORM Calls On NYC Transit Authority To Abandon Plans To Re-Open Diesel Bus Depot in East Harlem

East Harlem Already Has The Highest Asthma Rate In The City, And Its Children Cannot Afford More Diesel Fumes In The Community

New York, NY -- INFORM, the national environmental research organization based in New York City, today called on the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) to abandon its plans to re-open the 100th Street Diesel Bus Depot in East Harlem. INFORM will make its views known at a hearing held later today by the NY City Council's Transportation Committee.

Diesel fumes contribute significantly to the incidence of asthma, and New York City has the highest asthma and air toxic rates in the nation. According to a recent study by the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, the zip code that includes the 100th Street Depot (10029) has the highest asthma hospitalization rate in the city -- nearly five times the citywide median.

"It is absolutely unconscionable for the President of the Transit Authority to be proposing to worsen the East Harlem community's air pollution conditions, when an alternative to diesel buses is readily available," said Joanna Underwood, Founder of INFORM. "The Transit Authority has one of the worst records in the nation for converting to clean fuel buses, most notably compressed natural gas (CNG), and continues to cling to diesel, despite the effect that it has on the health of the children of our city."

The NYCTA has just 100 clean fuel buses (including approximately 90 CNG buses) in service out of a fleet of 4,300 buses -- a rate of 2 percent. More than 30 U.S. cities have converted at least 20 percent of their bus fleets to CNG buses, including Los Angeles, Houston, Cleveland and Phoenix. The NYCTA has ordered additional natural gas buses -- 190 are on order out of a commitment to order 500 clean fuel buses -- but the proposed capital plan of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the NYCTA's parent body, calls for only an additional 300 clean fuel buses to be purchased in the next five years. It also calls for the purchase of an additional 756 diesel buses, which will be subjecting yet another generation of children to their fumes.

INFORM is a national nonprofit organization that identifies practical ways of living and doing business that are environmentally sustainable. For more than a decade, INFORM's reports on alternative transportation fuels and advanced vehicle technologies have been respected resources worldwide.