ROCKLAND – To encourage drivers to stop idling their engines, the Maine Department of Transportation unveiled plans Tuesday to participate in the Clean Air Zone program by placing signs urging drivers to “stop their engines” while waiting in line at all Maine State Ferry Service terminals.

Greeters at the ferry terminal in Rockland spoke with waiting drivers and distributed literature outlining the reasons not to idle. Idling causes pollution, wastes costly fuel and can trigger asthma attacks and aggravate other health issues, the DOT stated in a news release.

The Maine State Ferry Service is part of the Maine DOT.

“I believe in clean air,” said Rockland resident Peggy Davis while waiting in line. “I don’t idle. Gas is so expensive. I stop my engine when my car doesn’t move.”

Ray Grotton of South Thomaston called the campaign a “good idea.”

Andy Burt, director of the environmental justice program of the Maine Council of Churches, said her organization is one of the partners of the Maine DOT and Department of Environmental Protection Clean Air program.

“We really want to create the idea of a ‘Clean Air Zone,'” she said. Burt and representatives of DEP and DOT talked with passengers waiting in line for a ferry about the harmful effects of tailpipe emissions. Burt said the Maine Council is collaborating with the Sierra Club’s Maine chapter, with which she has a long association, and the American Lung Association of Maine.

Joan Saxe of the Sierra Club said the communities are working on cleaning up the air and contributing to the reduction of global warming.

“This is just one of many steps Maine can take on its way to becoming more environmentally safe and to help reduce [the rate of] childhood asthma in Maine, one of the highest in the country,” she said.

The effort is a step in a four-year statewide clean air campaign that has established no-idling zones in schoolyards and downtown districts, and prompted some municipalities to enact no-idling policies.

DOT Deputy Commissioner Greg Nadeau was on hand to express his department’s support for the anti-idling initiative. “Putting up these signs at ferry service terminals fits in well with an array of state efforts to improve air quality, like developing alternate transportation modes,” he said.

DEP Commissioner David Littell praised the effort.

“The DEP is pleased to recognize our sister agency, the DOT, for raising public awareness of the environmental and health benefits of limiting the idling of vehicles,” he said, pointing out that vehicles idle precisely where people breathe.

In last year’s legislative session, a bill, LD 533, was proposed that would have established Clean Air Zones at public buildings, Maine State Ferry Service loading areas, and drawbridges. Although the bill was not enacted, efforts to continue voluntary participation were encouraged, Nadeau said.

Norman Anderson of the American Lung Association of Maine said in a prepared statement that people with asthma can be particularly sensitive to air pollutants, such as vehicle exhaust.

“We estimate that approximately 130,000 people in Maine have asthma, including almost 30,000 children,” Anderson said. “With the costs of treating asthma in Maine exceeding $150 million, we might do all we can to prevent avoidable exposures to environmental stress that can aggravate the condition of these individuals.”