Diesel grant promotes cleaner truck emissions for Chicopee

Date: 11/18/2009

By Mike Briotta

PRIME Editor



BOSTON - A state grant using federal funds should soon result in cleaner emissions from diesel garbage trucks in Springfield and Chicopee. According to Edmund J. Coletta Jr., director of the office of public affairs at the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) significant funds are available for retrofitting certain types of diesel vehicles.

Gov. Deval Patrick's administration awarded on Nov. 9 a total of $302,000 in federal stimulus funds to perform diesel retrofits, which are intended to cut emissions from 132 waste collection vehicles statewide-23 of which serve this area. State programs target vehicle emission reductions to promote cleaner air in the neighborhoods where waste trucks operate every week.

"We have $16.5 million available, and we're also trying to get all of the school buses retrofitted," Coletta said. Last year, the governor announced a clean-air program providing 100 percent funding to eligible publicly and privately owned school buses to install diesel retrofit devices. It aims to improve public health for children and local residents exposed to pollution. Under that program, up to 6,000 school buses and regional transit buses are eligible for diesel retrofits.

Coletta said that state funds designated for garbage trucks are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. "It's about who is stepping up first and getting in line," he said. "Once they get the funding, it should only be a matter of a day or two to get the vehicles retrofitted with this equipment."

The city of Chicopee received $16,866 in services for nine garbage collection vehicles serving that community, whereas Springfield stood to gain a total of $51,504 in services to retrofit 14 vehicles. It works out to a sum of about $1,874 per vehicle for retrofitting in Chicopee versus roughly $3,678 per vehicle in Springfield-nearly double the cost per vehicle in the latter municipality.

"The cost [per vehicle] really depends on the type of vehicle and equipment it needs," explained Coletta. "Any given vehicle could need just one of three different types of retrofit equipment." Depending on the vehicle owner's preference and the vehicle's operating system, the eligible trucks will receive one of three retrofit technologies: a diesel oxidation catalyst; a diesel flow through filter; or a diesel particulate filter.

According to Greg Superneau, project director of Springfield Department of Public Works (DPW) the grant money is not directly placed into city coffers, but rather the $51,504 earmarked for Springfield in grant funding will be paid to third-party vendors to retrofit the trash trucks.

"This money won't be money awarded to the city," said Superneau. "The DEP will contract with a vendor and the vendor will then contact us." He continued, "We applied for this grant in June." The grant application was the collaborative work of Superneau alongside Springfield DPW colleagues Mario Mazza and Robert Bernard. Two vendors, Southworth-Milton Inc. of Milford and Shuster Corporation of New Bedford, will provide and install the equipment.

The retrofit equipment will be installed on each waste collection vehicle's exhaust system. Depending on the retrofit technology selected, particulate matter emissions will be reduced by 25 to 89 percent, carbon monoxide emissions by 50-90 percent, and hydrocarbon emissions by 50 to 93 percent.

The superintendent of Chicopee's DPW, Stanley Kulig, was unavailable for comment at press time. A Chicopee DPW spokesman said he was unaware of the diesel retrofit grants. Springfield's Superneau theorized that costs per vehicle in Springfield could be higher than in Chicopee due to the fact that Springfield uses semi-automated rubbish trucks and Chicopee primarily uses rear-loaders.

The recent round of state grants originated, according to a DEP news release, from federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds and Diesel Emissions Reduction Act funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The 14 garbage collection trucks to be retrofitted in Springfield represent two-thirds of their 21-truck fleet. Vehicles eligible for the grant money were made prior to the 2006 model year, according to Superneau.

"This is a combination of federal programs and state grants working together," said Superneau. "One goal of the administration is to cut down on pollutants in the air. This is a good program that helps to reduce pollutants."

While many individual owners of diesel-powered cars have chosen to retrofit their cars to run on bio-diesel - often obtained in the form of recycled oil from restaurant fryers - Coletta said that idea is not currently part of the Patrick-Murray administration's diesel retrofit grants for garbage trucks.

"Bio-diesel is not part of this particular issue," said the DEP spokesman. "The state, however, has other regulations in place for putting bio-diesel into regular diesel and home heating oil."

Grants to retrofit waste collection vehicles are targeted in part at improving communities deemed environmental justice areas. According to the DEP, 29 of the communities have pediatric asthma rates that are at or above the statewide incidence level of 10 percent.

Historically, the environmental justice movement has been one of grassroots activism focusing on the rights and liberties of people of color and low-income communities relative to the environment. The movement responds particularly to the disproportionate burden of industrial pollution and lack of regulatory enforcement in these communities.

"The additional federal stimulus money allows us to expand this important program into many more neighborhoods across the Commonwealth," DEP Commissioner Laurie Burt said in a written statement. "When completed, these retrofits will help to protect sensitive populations in environmental justice communities and areas of high asthma rates."