Resolved: cleaner air starts at home
When some Chelsea officials and environmentalists opposed to the construction of a proposed power plant began to list the reasons for their argument last year, one thing stood out: Chelsea's air is already too dirty.
Dirtier than they thought -- specifically because of respiratory disease-causing exhaust emitted from diesel-fueled vehicles, including oil tankers along the creek, and planes from Logan A irport.
So City Councilor Marilyn Vega-Torres , working with a newly formed local clean air coalition, issued a resolution, approved last month by the council, asking the city to commit to reducing diesel pollution. The measure suggested starting with retrofitting the city's own fleet of vehicles.
"We already deal with a lot of environmental injustices in Chelsea. We have a high, high asthma rate that affects children and seniors," Vega-Torres said. "What better way to try to prevent some of that pollution than by retrofitting some of our municipal vehicles and try to be an example for the rest of the businesses."
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency , diesel engines are the third largest human-made source of fine particles in New England at 20 percent emissions. Studies have linked particulate matter to lung damage, asthma, bronchitis, and cancer. One EPA study, cited during the power plant debate, found that diesel exhaust in Chelsea is five times the US average.
"Even if we're successful in keeping the power plant away, we still have this huge problem with diesel," said T.J. Hellmann , coordinator for the nonprofit Chelsea Green Space , which formed the Clean Air Coalition . "We started to think about solutions, turning over to cleaner diesel fuel, using filters and cleaner fuel, that can reduce up to 90 percent of the diesel particulate matters."
Hellmann said the coalition first turned to the private oil and trucking companies in Chelsea, asking if they would commit to retrofitting their vehicles.
"I got pushed back," Hellmann said. He quoted the companies as telling him, " 'Look, we're not trying to do more than what the law says.' So we thought the city could be the example-setter, hoping that when the city is beginning to identify how much diesel matter they're putting out, that that learning process can be replicated with a company that would be willing to do that as well."
Hellmann, also a member of the Chelsea T Riders Union , successfully led the way a couple of years ago to have the MBTA retrofit its local bus fleet, which now run s on compressed natural gas.
The resolution by Vega-Torres points out that "diesel engines in Chelsea are a key part of the local economy," and makes mention of new federal standards to reduce diesel emissions in vehicles manufactured this year and beyond.
"Ideally, the city would buy new vehicles, " Vega-Torres said. But r ealistically, she pointed out in her resolution that the city would turn to the state or the federal government for grants or other financial incentives to help with the local effort.
Since Chelsea's school buses have already been retrofitted, Hellmann said the resolution asked that officials inventory other heavy-duty diesel vehicles and equipment owned by the city or that are under contract or leased for more than three months. Those may include public works and Fire Department vehicles. But Hellmann said he hopes city officials reach out to its private trash hauler.
"Trash collection trucks are the biggest" offenders, Hellmann said. "They go up and down the neighborhood streets, passing very slowly down the street."
At least one private Chelsea company has jumped on the alternative fuels wagon. Fuel, oil, and gasoline delivery company Dennis K. Burke , located on Eastern Avenue , joined the EPA's SmartWay program, which helps transportation companies implement strategies for conserving fuel and money. The program helps freight companies with aerodynamics to new tire design to reduce emissions and improve gas mileage.
"The program just made all kinds of sense," said Ed Burke , chairman of the company's board. "We bought more newer-tech 10-wheel trucks sooner than we would've ordinarily. The fuel economy of these trucks is significant. In the trucking world, if you can gain one mile per gallon you're gaining a lot."
Debbi Edelstein , manager of Northeast Diesel Collaborative , a partnership of public and private entities in eight Northeastern states including Massachusetts, said retrofitting local fleets is part of "a growing movement in the municipal level that started in New York," where diesel emissions control has expanded to include waste haulers, public construction contracts, and sight-seeing buses.
"What Chelsea is doing is admirable," she said. "A small fleet of trucks isn't going to make a huge impact, but it's incremental and it's moving in the right direction."
