Post by HardTimeTrucker on Nov 10, 2008 20:59:22 GMT -5
BNSF Railway Looking at New Technologies to Reduce Air Pollution
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
11/10/2008
SAN BERNARDINO - Experimental exhaust filters, locomotives with multiple engines, and diesel engines with built-in brains are among the technologies that government officials and BNSF Railway executives are considering to reduce air pollution.
BNSF has received serious criticism from Westside residents after environmental regulators announced earlier this year that people living near the 168-acre rail yard face elevated cancer risks.
The danger, in the eyes of the California Air Resources Board, is the diesel pollution emitted by trucks and locomotives. The obvious imperative is to reduce diesel pollutions.
One method that BNSF executives are already using to cut back on pollution is using engines that automatically shut down when left idling.
Tom Ison, a BNSF executive who oversees hub operations from St. Paul, Minn., to Los Angeles said new diesel engines come equipped with an "electronic control module" that monitors how much fuel engines are consuming.
"On a low idle, when it's not being used, it senses that," he said.
A 200-horsepower engine used to power a crane at BNSF Railway's train yard shut off with a rattling noise that sounded something like a lawn mower - only much bigger - after being allowed to idle.
The brain-like devices add $10,000 to the cost of an engine, Ison said. The system in the crane is set up to shut down after five minutes.
BNSF has also reported that the firm uses anti-idling technology on 99 percent its switch locomotives used at California rail yards.
Ison also said the company plans to install filter traps on its cranes, but BNSF personnel are not yet sure how to make the technology - which must function in super-hot conditions - work.
He said the company lost $80,000 in an attempt to install one of the filters.
"It fried the turbo on the machine, and we almost lost the engine," he said.
Ison - noting that rail employees have to breathe the same exhaust as their neighbors - said he wants his employer to get "ahead of the curve" on the filter technology. He said the filters will be required by 2010.
In San Bernardino, the firm is also using the antipollution measure on its hostlers - trucks that look like junior big rigs that are used to haul goods around the yard.
Mark Stehly, a BNSF assistant vice president who oversees the rail company's work on environmental matters, said two-thirds of the 45 hostlers used at the San Bernardino yard have been replaced with models that meet environmental standards for road vehicles. The remaining vehicles are set to be replaced next year.
Stehly said emissions at the rail yard have dropped by 30 percent since 2005, when BNSF, Union Pacific and the Air Resources Board made an agreement to improve air quality around rail yards.
In 2005, train and truck engines generated about 33 tons of diesel particulate matter within one mile of the San Bernardino yard.
The Air Resources Board used that data to calculate that about 3,800 people living very close to BNSF's San Bernardino rail yard live with a cancer risk - that's 500 chances or more per million cases above the region's base line level.
State officials reported that more people living near the San Bernardino yard also face elevated cancer risks, although the danger drops the farther one lives from the yard.
Stehly thinks the agency, which used a worst-case scenario formula in making its calculations, overstated cancer risks.
Whoever is correct, air pollution around the yard has captured the attention of upset neighbors who have flocked to recent town hall meetings to demand immediate cleanups - including San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris.
Interviewed Friday, Morris said the city will try to aid BNSF's efforts by seeking grants that would help finance the purchase of greener locomotive technology.
He and aide Casey Dailey also said the city will soon issue fliers to truckers who carry goods to and from the rail yards to alert them to the pollution issue.
Dailey said the city will look for opportunities to obtain Proposition 1 B funding that could be used to purchase GenSet switch locomotives. GenSets use multiple diesel engines instead of a single large engine so all engines don't need to be firing if their power isn't needed.
"It's a serious issue. You've got the people's health and safety at risk in the area," Dailey said.
Proposition 1 B, passed in 2006, was a $19.9 billion bond measure intended to reduce traffic and air pollution in California.
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer
11/10/2008
SAN BERNARDINO - Experimental exhaust filters, locomotives with multiple engines, and diesel engines with built-in brains are among the technologies that government officials and BNSF Railway executives are considering to reduce air pollution.
BNSF has received serious criticism from Westside residents after environmental regulators announced earlier this year that people living near the 168-acre rail yard face elevated cancer risks.
The danger, in the eyes of the California Air Resources Board, is the diesel pollution emitted by trucks and locomotives. The obvious imperative is to reduce diesel pollutions.
One method that BNSF executives are already using to cut back on pollution is using engines that automatically shut down when left idling.
Tom Ison, a BNSF executive who oversees hub operations from St. Paul, Minn., to Los Angeles said new diesel engines come equipped with an "electronic control module" that monitors how much fuel engines are consuming.
"On a low idle, when it's not being used, it senses that," he said.
A 200-horsepower engine used to power a crane at BNSF Railway's train yard shut off with a rattling noise that sounded something like a lawn mower - only much bigger - after being allowed to idle.
The brain-like devices add $10,000 to the cost of an engine, Ison said. The system in the crane is set up to shut down after five minutes.
BNSF has also reported that the firm uses anti-idling technology on 99 percent its switch locomotives used at California rail yards.
Ison also said the company plans to install filter traps on its cranes, but BNSF personnel are not yet sure how to make the technology - which must function in super-hot conditions - work.
He said the company lost $80,000 in an attempt to install one of the filters.
"It fried the turbo on the machine, and we almost lost the engine," he said.
Ison - noting that rail employees have to breathe the same exhaust as their neighbors - said he wants his employer to get "ahead of the curve" on the filter technology. He said the filters will be required by 2010.
In San Bernardino, the firm is also using the antipollution measure on its hostlers - trucks that look like junior big rigs that are used to haul goods around the yard.
Mark Stehly, a BNSF assistant vice president who oversees the rail company's work on environmental matters, said two-thirds of the 45 hostlers used at the San Bernardino yard have been replaced with models that meet environmental standards for road vehicles. The remaining vehicles are set to be replaced next year.
Stehly said emissions at the rail yard have dropped by 30 percent since 2005, when BNSF, Union Pacific and the Air Resources Board made an agreement to improve air quality around rail yards.
In 2005, train and truck engines generated about 33 tons of diesel particulate matter within one mile of the San Bernardino yard.
The Air Resources Board used that data to calculate that about 3,800 people living very close to BNSF's San Bernardino rail yard live with a cancer risk - that's 500 chances or more per million cases above the region's base line level.
State officials reported that more people living near the San Bernardino yard also face elevated cancer risks, although the danger drops the farther one lives from the yard.
Stehly thinks the agency, which used a worst-case scenario formula in making its calculations, overstated cancer risks.
Whoever is correct, air pollution around the yard has captured the attention of upset neighbors who have flocked to recent town hall meetings to demand immediate cleanups - including San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris.
Interviewed Friday, Morris said the city will try to aid BNSF's efforts by seeking grants that would help finance the purchase of greener locomotive technology.
He and aide Casey Dailey also said the city will soon issue fliers to truckers who carry goods to and from the rail yards to alert them to the pollution issue.
Dailey said the city will look for opportunities to obtain Proposition 1 B funding that could be used to purchase GenSet switch locomotives. GenSets use multiple diesel engines instead of a single large engine so all engines don't need to be firing if their power isn't needed.
"It's a serious issue. You've got the people's health and safety at risk in the area," Dailey said.
Proposition 1 B, passed in 2006, was a $19.9 billion bond measure intended to reduce traffic and air pollution in California.