The EPA said last month it awarded $3.1 million to the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont to help curb diesel emissions, including a competitive grant to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

Of the total, the EPA said it distributed $1.7 million to the six states through its State Clean Diesel Program, which aims to reduce emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines by such projects as replacing vehicles with new models, repowering or retrofitting equipment with cleaner-burning engines or by installing emission-control gear.

Separately, the EPA awarded $1.4 million in competitive grants to projects in three states – New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Massachusetts – with the largest amount going to the NHDOT. The awards will cover 25 percent of project costs for vehicle replacements, the EPA said, and 40 percent for ferry engine repowers

That state agency will use $789,750 in EPA funds in a project that is replacing 18-wheeled front-end loaders, one motor grader and two pavement striping trucks with EPA-certified model year 2017/2018 vehicles and equipment.

Christopher Waszczuk, deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire DOT, said the “purchase of these new trucks and construction equipment with low-emissions diesel engines will not only provide a benefit to air quality at a localized level, but also benefit the overall general public statewide as these units will be used across the state to help keep New Hampshire’s roads safe and mobile.”

In Rhode Island, CLF Ventures will use a $386,105 grant to help install three EPA-certified Tier 3 marine propulsion engines in a ferry, the M/V Carol Jean, which provides year-round service between Point Judith and Block Island.

And the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co. is applying a $262,500 award to replacing four utility bucket trucks from model years 2002-2006 with model year 2018 trucks – two equipped with more modern conventional diesel engines and two with diesel-electric hybrid technology.