Philadelphia Diesel Difference Working Group Minutes

February 14, 2005

The Philadelphia Diesel Difference - Working Group Meeting
Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
Pennsylvania New Jersey Room
The Bourse Building
111 S. Independence Mall East, 8th Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19106

IN ATTENDANCE:
Brett Alkins, Johnson Matthew, Inc.
Alvaro Alvarado, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Ken Brown, Gordon College
Francine Carlini, PA DEP
Ray Chalmers, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Eric Cheung, Clean Air Council/PDD
Bill Coughlin, Sunoco, Inc.
Emi Faloughi, DVRPC
Morris Fine, AMS/PDD
Ron Gilbaugh, Unionville - Chadds Ford School District
Lionel Gillston, Diesel Engine Transformations LLP
Joseph Grincewicz, School District of Philadelphia
John Hadalski, City of Philadelphia Managing Director's Office
Randall Hirschhorn, AMS
Paula Krall, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Jack LeBeau, E Global Solutions
Lisa Leighton, PennFuture
Roger Leisenring, Sunoco, Inc.
Steven Levy, Sprague Energy
Deborah L. McNeal, Sunoco, Inc.
Robert Neff, PA Turnpike Commission
Brian Rehn, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Kelly Scheckler, U.S. EPA, Region 3
Bill Ross, Sprague Energy
Arleen, Shulman, PA DEP
Chris Thomas, City of Philadelphia Managing Director's Office
Hallie Weiss, Philadelphia AMS
Barbara Wilson, Krapf Bus Co.
Gail Wolfel, Unionville - Chadds Ford School District

MINUTES TAKEN BY:

Eric Cheung

INTRODUCTIONS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Morris reported that on Jan. 28, 2005, Alvaro Alvarado presented his diesel PM regional impact report to city officials. He noted the impact as it relates to ports and areas along the river. Morris said the meeting was well attended with representatives from the Managing Director's Office, Water Department, City Planning, Health Commission, PIDC, and Fleet Management. The meeting sparked greater interest in clean diesel strategies and technologies from the other city departments. Morris felt there is the potential for new grant money to address these issues and that there will be follow-up on this meeting. Meanwhile, Morris said that AMS is moving ahead with its Anti-Idling initiative and hopefully, by March, it will be under way.

CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP:

Eric is continuing to work on the Corporate Sponsorship/Adopt-A-School Bus mailing to the Top 50 companies in the Philadelphia region.

PHILADELPHIA DIESEL DIFFERENCE ACTIVITIES UPDATE:

Eric reported that the project to retrofit another six Krapf buses for West Chester School District using $30,000 made available by U.S. EPA Region 3 may be moving forward. The project was stalled because of administrative problems that prevented EPA from providing the money directly to the fleet. The EPA can, however, transfer the money to the State. PA DEP graciously agreed to act as an intermediary between EPA and West Chester School District to enable the project to continue. Barbara Wilson thanked PA DEP on behalf of Krapf Bus Co and West Chester. Arleen Shulman noted that she was still working out the details to enable this funding distribution.

Eric mentioned that Clean Air Council's statewide school bus anti-idling campaign is underway. The Council held a conference call with various statewide stakeholders at the end of January and has developed outreach materials and a website for the campaign (http://www.cleanair.org/Transportation/idling.html). The objective of the campaign is to encourage school districts across the state to implement school bus anti-idling policies, either by Board Resolution or as part of a bus operations manual. The Council will be sending out a mailing describing the program to all school districts in the state next month. Already the Council recognizes on its website four school districts that have successfully implemented anti-idling requirements for their school buses: Lower Merion, North Penn, Spring-Ford and Unionville-Chadds Ford.

CLEAN YELLOW BUS ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEASTERN PENNSYLVANIA (CYBA) REPORT:

Eric reported that he will be presenting on emission-reducing strategies for school buses at the Annual PA School Business Officials Conference in Valley Forge on March 10, 2005. He also noted that all three Philadelphia area school districts that received Toyota Settlement funding were planning on proceeding with their diesel retrofit projects, despite the problems North Penn has encountered. Arleen Shulman noted that one school bus fleet outside the Philadelphia area that received Toyota funding has decided to back out of its project, because of a concern with the price differential for ULSD.

GRANT OPPORTUNITIES:

Eric stated that U.S. Department of Energy money is available for projects involving idling-reduction technologies and hybrid electric diesel through Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities. A formal solicitation is expected soon. Eric added that Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities was successfully awarded $25,000 in funding from National Clean Cities, Inc. to conduct biodiesel outreach. An official solicitation for EPA's expected CARE grant is not out yet. Eric also reminded Working Group members that the 2005 round of Clean School Bus USA funding would be due out in the Spring. According to EPA representatives, the funding available this year will be $7.5 million. It will be an entirely new request for solicitations and the grant will only be available to school districts. Thus, an organization like the National Student Transportation Association, cannot apply for funding to distribute money to private contractor fleets, as was the case in 2003. Ray Chalmers explained this change occurred, because funding for Clean School Bus USA is now tied to a new a law, which limits who can apply for grant money. Morris asked whether the EPA had any funding for independent truckers to install on-board anti-idling systems. No one was aware of such funding. Arleen mentioned, however, that PA DEP has a program called "Small Business Advantage Grant" (http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/pollprev/Ombudsman/Advantage/ADVANTAGE.htm), which provides grants of up to $7,500 to small business fleets for pollution prevention equipment or processes. Truckers have used this money to pay for heaters in their vehicles. The program is currently not accepting applications, but will be open for solicitations later this year.

TECHNICAL SUB-COMMITTEE MEETING REPORT:

Eric reviewed the minutes of the Technical Sub-Committee conference call, which took place February 4, 2005. Morris clarified that the role of the Technical Sub-Committee as it relates to the ULSD/fuel pump issue is NOT as a formal investigative body. PDD will NOT issue a formal "expert" report concerning the problem, but will try to devise some recommendations that it can offer for new fleets interested in diesel retrofits. Basically, Morris wants the Sub-Committee to establish a clearinghouse of information so that fleets can make informed decisions when they do decide to embark on a clean diesel project. Morris stressed that PDD does not have the technical in-house expertise to commission an investigative group and that hopefully EPA would be able to come up with a more definitive report as to what caused North Penn's fuel pump problems. The end result of the Sub-Committee's work will probably be recommendations or a preventative guidance document that provides fleets the most useful information the Sub-Committee has learned through its review of the problem.

Arleen noted that the cause of the problem may never be known, but that PDD can keep things in perspective. PDD knows the make and model for buses that have had problems and those that have had no problems. The majority of buses are not experiencing any difficulties. The nature of Technical Sub-Committee's work will probably take the form of a statistical analysis. The recommendations produced by the Sub-Committee will be less of a clear answer and more of a guidance as to the likelihood of future fleets experiencing problems.

The group next discussed how information will be exchanged. Eric suggested he can distribute internal information via an email list for those interested in participating on the Technical Sub-Committee or make it available through a webpage, whose address is not publicly given out. As for any public recommendations that the Technical Sub-Committee makes, Morris reminded everyone that such information would have to be reviewed by both the Executive Committee and full PDD Working Group beforehand. Besides information the Technical Sub-Committee gathers from those parties looking into the North Penn fuel pump problem, EPA will have additional information from across the country that may be useful to know. In fact the EPA will be gathering together its own clearinghouse of information to determine how widespread the fuel pump problem is. EPA will be issuing a report this summer about the obstacles and successes relating to clean school buses.

Barbara Wilson said it would be helpful if the Technical Sub-Committee could design a complaint form for school bus fleets to ensure useful data is being collected systematically going forward. Emi Faloughi added that PDD ought to establish a structure and format for addressing the fuel pump issue before the Technical Sub-Committee begins its work, so that its response is not done haphazardly. Morris agreed and proposed a meeting of the Executive Committee prior to the Sub-Committee meeting to establish guidelines for how it will proceed and for how information will be solicited. Morris also requested that Eric collect input from PDD's school district partners as to the types of questions they want to see the Sub-Committee address. Joe Grincewicz noted that Philadelphia School District is very concerned about the fuel pump problem and is anxious to see the outcome of the Sub-Committee's work.

MONTHLY PRESENTATION:

Roger Leisenring of Sunoco presented to the Working Group a summary of a previous investigation into diesel-related problems, which he took part in. Roger is the current Chair of the ASTM Diesel Fuel Section (D975). He was a past member of California's Diesel Fuel Advisory Task Force. This Task Force was established in 1993 to investigate seal leakage and lubricity issues involving vehicles that had switched to diesel fuel with lower sulfur content. Roger clarified that while he could talk about what this past diesel investigation found, he was uncomfortable speculating too much on what the cause of the current problem experienced by North Penn might be.

Among the findings of the Task Force were the following:
1) Some of the vehicles that experienced problems failed to change their fuel pump seals as per recommended maintenance schedules
2) Fuel pump problem affected only a small percentage of the vehicle population, but for these fleets that were affected, the problem was a serious one.
3) Those fuel systems that experienced leakages used seals made of Buna N rubber. Fuel systems with seals made of Viton experienced no problems.
4) Fuel lubricity was not the cause of fuel pump leakages and as of January 1, 2005 the ASTM D975 standard for diesel includes a lubricity specification.
5) There may be a link between peroxides formed by prolonged fuel storage and seal failures, but this issue is still being investigated by an ASTM task force.

Roger noted the 1993 investigation could not come up with any absolute conclusions as to the cause of fuel system failures. The failures associated with the use of the new diesel fuel accelerated failures that would eventually have happened anyway. The failures here happened over the course of 6 months, causing an increase in the failure rate. Afterwards, failures rates were lower than normal. Replacement of the seals basically solved the problem. Any repeat failures were tied to improper installation and not seal components.

In attempting to offer some advice relating to today's fuel system problems, Roger said he was curious whether North Penn's vehicles used Buna N seals or not.

More information can be found in Roger's PowerPoint presentation, available online here: http://www.cleanair.org/dieseldifference/archive/PDDMinutes/index.html.

NEXT MEETING AND LOCATION:

Eric announced that the next meeting will be held Monday, March 21, 2005.