Coastal fishing charter awarded air pollution reduction grant

An Onslow County-based fishing charter is among this year’s recipients awarded a total of $1.14 million in grants for projects aimed at reducing air pollution from diesel-powered engines.

Nancy Lee III Fishing Charters LLC in Swansboro has been awarded $88,000 to replace two tier-0 1978 model diesel propulsion engines with new tier-3 low-emission diesel engines, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Air Quality announced Wednesday.

“This project eliminates 1,100.16 tons of lifetime CO₂ emissions and reduces 1.56 tons of lifetime NOx emissions,” according to a DAQ release.

The fishing charter is among nine recipients of the 2024 Mobile Source Emissions Reduction grants, which are funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Diesel Emissions Reduction Act program. The federal program supports projects designed to significantly reduce diesel emissions.

Projects awarded this year will replace or retrofit 20 older diesel vehicles and equipment with cleaner alternatives, including new electric vehicles.

Other grant winners include:

• Cumberland County: $289,380 to replace an international box truck, crawler dozer and rubber tire dozer with new, modern equipment.
• Delta Air Lines Inc. in Wake County: $268,248 to replace six tier 1 and tier 2 diesel belt loaders with zero-emission electric belt loaders.
• Espinoza Hauling and Trucking Co Inc. in Swain County: $185,991 to replace a 1999 tier 1 cold milling machine with a 2025 CARB-certified tier 4 cold milling machine.
• Fortner Contracting Inc. in Swain County: $62,039 to replace a 1992 tier 0 off-road wheel loader with a 2025 tier 4 rubber tire loader.
• The HMC Paving and Construction Co Inc. in Swain County: $19,913 to replace a 2008 tier 0 diesel truck with a new CARB-certified EPA tier 4 2024 ULSD truck.
• Progress Freight Lines Inc. in Wake County: $100,000 to replace two older diesel Class 8 trucks with new, cleaner technology.
• Carrboro in Orange County: $6,951 to replace a 2005 utility terrain vehicle with an electric model.
• Waste Management of Carolinas, Inc. in Buncombe County: $120,000 to replace four diesel vehicles with heavy duty near-zero emission compressed natural gas vehicles.

Projects that were awarded this year’s grant funding are projected to eliminate more than 3,400 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over their lifetimes and reduce more than 57 tons of nitrogen oxides and 7,700 pounds of fine particulate matter across all projects.

DAQ awards the grants each year to projects that will replace, retrofit or repair diesel-powered mobile sources to reduce emissions.

Projects funded through the 2023 Mobile Sources Emissions Reductions Grant replaced 18 vehicles and reduced more than 43 tones of lifetime NOx emissions and more than 3,000 tons of lifetime CO2 emissions.