A federal program is targeting exhaust-spewing highway equipment in the Lawrence area for cleanup.

Regulators say the move could help Douglas County avoid expensive remediation bills down the road.

The Environmental Protection Agency is pumping $4 million into a state program to reduce diesel emissions. Among the initiatives is to tinker with 76 trucks owned by Westar Energy and another 75 owned by the Kansas Department of Transportation, including some based in Douglas County.

Westar vehicles receiving new diesel oxidation catalysts, for example, will be expected to cough up only half as many hydrocarbons and 40 percent less carbon monoxide. KDOT trucks receiving anti-idling equipment could further reduce the amount of pollutants being belched into the atmosphere from maintenance and construction jobs.

Both efforts are intended to accelerate adoption of technological advancements that improve efficiency and prevent pollution.

“Air quality is a big issue right now in Lawrence and any other area that’s growing,” said David Bryan, a spokesman for the EPA’s regional office in Kansas City, Mo. “One of the things that helps is this type of emissions reduction … and every little bit helps.”

Such observations are especially true in the Lawrence area, which has narrowly escaped being grouped in with the Kansas City metro area as a “nonattainment” region for ozone. The nonattainment tag is hung on areas that fail to meet minimum air-quality standards.

In neighboring Johnson County and other Kansas City-area communities, consumers find themselves paying extra for cleaner-burning grades of gasoline during the summer months, and are urged to not run their lawn mowers until evening hours.

“It’s a big deal,” said Doug Watson, an environmental scientist for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. “It’s a lot of money. It’s in the millions of dollars that it could cost cities and the county.”

The Kansas City area actually will reap the largest share of the $4 million in federal stimulus financing approved by EPA. Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway will get $2.52 million, for example, to replace three 1970 locomotive switch engines with locomotives that run on diesel generators instead. The new locomotives will be kept for at least five years in Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, plus three other counties across the state line in Missouri.