Clean Air Grants Reduce Air Pollution from Agricultural Operations

This year’s grants will help pay for new, lower-emission equipment to replace ten (10) older, higher-pollution diesel engines in agricultural equipment. The total investment in 2020 air quality projects, including the cost-share contributed by grant recipients, will be nearly $1.3 million. Since 2018, VCAPCD has awarded over $2.7 million in FARMER incentives to help agricultural businesses operating in Ventura County replace older equipment with cleaner, low-emission equipment.

“Our FARMER Program focuses on reducing emissions from agricultural operations, one of the last unregulated sectors of diesel engine operations. The FARMER Program helps modernize the fleet of tractors in Ventura County fields. Modern tractors reduce toxic diesel particulate exposure of the farm workers and help the County attain federal and state air quality standards for ozone.” said Dr. Laki Tisopulos, Air Pollution Control Officer of the VCAPCD.

VCAPCD has three separate incentive programs through which grants are awarded to the most cost-effective projects. These grants seek to maximize the reduction of smog-forming and toxic diesel particulate emissions countywide, with a large portion of the grants focusing on reducing pollution in disadvantaged and low-income communities. The FARMER Program Guidelines recommend at least 50 percent of the funds go to disadvantaged communities and an additional five percent go to low-income communities as described in AB 1550. The approved grants exceed these targets, as 80 percent of the funds are allocated to projects in communities classified as both disadvantaged and low-income and the remaining 20 percent of funds are allocated to projects in low-income communities.

The total annual emissions reductions from this year’s grants are 4.8 tons per year of ozone precursors, 0.3 tons per year of diesel particulate matter, and 11.2 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

VCAPCD will begin accepting applications for next year’s combined incentive program grants in the spring of 2021. If you are interested in being placed on an email list to be notified when applications become available or when community meetings are being held for our incentive programs, please email Miles Bergeson at miles@vcapcd.org and specify the mailing list you wish to subscribe to.

The Ventura County FARMER Program is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.