BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) announced today that it will be the recipient of a Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Clean Diesel grant of $295,320 that will assist in the funding of two new ferry engines that will help reduce emissions and help improve air quality.

“This is a welcomed source of funding for our ferry section,” said DOTD Assistant Secretary of Operations Gordon Nelson. “This grant will not only assist us in providing new engines for two vessels in our fleet, but will provide a source of power that is cleaner and better for our environment.”

The DEQ’s grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will help retrofit two of DOTD’s ferry boats – the M/V Acadia, which operates at the Plaquemines crossing, and the M/V St. Francisville, which operates at the St Francisville/New Roads crossing.

“This grant from EPA illustrates the cooperative effort between federal and state partners to reduce pollution and improve air quality and the environment,” said Paul Miller, DEQ Assistant Secretary.  “DEQ will be working with DOTD to help reduce emissions by retrofitting engines in Louisiana’s ferry fleet. This kind of cooperation between agencies and the federal government is a step forward in improving air quality.”

This is the first step in re-powering DOTD ferries with new cleaner running engines. DOTD plans to re-power other vessels in the future as additional funding becomes available.

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www.dotd.la.gov