Published December 2002

CT, other diesel users
switch to cleaner fuel

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT As part of a pilot project with the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, Community Transit’s fleet of more than 300 buses is already burning ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, reducing air pollution in Snohomish County five years ahead of the federal Environmental Protection Agency deadline.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

By 2007, Snohomish County’s diesel-powered “working wheels” — from buses and semi-trucks to bulldozers and excavators — will be required to meet new local and national sulfur standards designed to eliminate 90 percent or more of today’s toxic exhaust gases and fine particulates.

Over the past several years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has moved to regulate two of the most significant sources of motor-vehicle air pollution, first setting limits on auto engine emissions and establishing a low-sulfur gasoline program for passenger cars and light-duty trucks.

Then the EPA set a 2007 deadline for significantly limiting heavy-duty diesel truck emissions by requiring new “clean” engine designs that re-circulate exhaust gases to capture toxic emissions and fine particulates. The new engines will also burn new ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels.

The EPA expects the newest clean-air standards will have tremendous public health and environmental benefits, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health care, lost wages and related costs.

Now, the federal agency has tackled the last large diesel polluting source: engines that power construction equipment, such as bulldozers and excavators; portable generators, airport service equipment and forklifts; and agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines and irrigation system pumps.

By 2007, those equipment sources also will have to comply with the same 90 percent reduction in air pollution that will be demanded of on-road diesel truck engines. Much of the compliance will be accomplished by the use of new ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, along with retrofitted equipment that reduces fine particulates and toxic emissions to meet the new standards.

In the Puget Sound area, an early pilot program is already reducing diesel engine emissions through the use of ultra-low-sulfur fuels, five years ahead of the national deadline.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency has partnered with a consortium of diesel operators, including Snohomish County’s Community Transit; the Everett School District’s fleet contractor, Durham School Services; the Department of Transportation; Port of Seattle and Emerald City Disposal, supported by the Pacific Rim Enterprise Center, to begin using the new fuel in a model program expected to be replicated nationally.

King County, the city of Seattle and Boeing are also using ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuels for their vehicle fleets. King County Metro’s buses have been using the new fuel since July 2001.

The model program is made possible by the production of ultra-low-sulfur fuels at the Phillips Petroleum refinery near Ferndale.

While new diesel-engine standards mandated by the EPA for the beginning of 2007 will be designed to filter fine particulates, older engines may need retrofitted equipment. In the Puget Sound area, oxidation catalysts cost about $1,500 to $2,500 each, and diesel particulate filters cost about $5,000 to $8,000 each, according to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Costs are expected to decrease with large-volume orders as more vehicles are equipped.

Diesel oxidation catalysts can reduce particulate emissions by 20 to 50 percent, toxic hydrocarbons by more than 70 percent and carbon monoxide by more than 90 percent. Particulate filters can reduce particulate matter, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and toxic hydrocarbon emissions by 90 percent or more.

Initially, ultra-low-sulfur fuel will be priced at 8 cents per gallon more at the refinery than conventional fuel, an increase that is expected to diminish as more refiners supply larger volumes of the fuel.

Community Transit is already running its 308-bus fleet on the new cleaner-burning diesel fuel, adding to operating costs, but “the overall benefit to the people of Snohomish County is priceless,” said transportation agency spokesperson Tom Pearce.

“Diesel fuel used to contain up to 30,000 parts per million of sulfur. Then low-sulfur fuels were produced with only 500 parts per million. This new fuel has only 15 parts per million of sulfur,” Pearce said.

Community Transit also has begun installing retrofit devices on some of its buses to recirculate and reburn fine particulates in preparation to meet the 2007 EPA diesel-engine exhaust standards, he said. The initial work is partially paid for by a $250,000 grant from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and Detroit Diesel Corp.

The impetus for the move to practically zero-sulfur fuels comes from studies showing increasing health hazards from diesel engine exhaust particulates and gases.

In May, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency released a draft of a Puget Sound Air Toxics Evaluation showing that at least 70 percent of the Seattle area’s airborne toxics can be attributed to diesel exhaust. That confirms early results from the EPA’s national assessment, which showed the Puget Sound area is in the top 5 percent of the country’s highest toxic air sites.

The Puget Sound Clean Air Agency’s study marks the first time a relatively large group of toxic air pollutants has been studied, analyzed for cumulative health effects and then ranked by their effect on people’s health. The data indicate that the cancer risk from outdoor air toxins in the Puget Sound region could be as high as 700 in a million, with 500 of those cancer risks attributed to diesel exhaust.

“This report adds cancer risk on top of the noncancer health risks we already knew about for fine particulate matter,” said Dennis McLerran, executive director of the agency. McLerran said fine particulates from diesel exhaust are responsible for hundreds of lost work and school days in the Puget Sound area, as well as causing additional deaths.

Last June, a new analysis by state and local air pollution regulators concluded that tough new federal standards for diesel construction equipment and other big “non-road” diesels — along with restrictions on diesel fuel itself — would create dramatic health and economic benefits, including avoiding more than 8,500 premature deaths annually.

In October, another sign of the coming crackdown on diesel pollution was the announcement by Erin Crotty, commissioner of the state of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, that construction equipment used for the rebuilding of the New York City World Trade Center would need to use new ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel, as would the machinery and equipment fleets maintained by the city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the state Department of Transportation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is coordinating the project.

In Seattle, McLerran expects to see similar changes in the Puget Sound area construction industry.

“We’re working with folks like the Port of Seattle to look at how to put similar requirements into local contracts, such as road and construction projects, similar to the limits set in New York City for the new WTC project,” he said.

For more information, contact Paul Carr at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, 206-689-4085, send e-mail to paulc@pscleanair.org or visit the agency’s Web site, www.pscleanair.org.

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