Dunleavy greases the skids for vegetable oil
Riverhead councilman pitches 'alternative' plan to power town trucks
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Councilman John Dunleavy, with a container of filtered vegetable oil, wants the town to experiment using the oil, combined with diesel, to fuel two town vehicles.
"This is vegetable oil that's been filtered," he told Town Board members at a recent work session, holding up a jar of filtered vegetable oil. "Diesel trucks can run on 75 percent vegetable oil and 25 percent diesel. What I want to do and I'll see if I can get your permission to do it, is take two diesel vehicles, and run them on 75 percent vegetable oil, which only costs a dollar a gallon, instead of diesel, and see how much money we can save."
Diesel generally sells for about 20 cents per gallon more than regular gasoline.
Mr. Dunleavy said there's a Calverton resident who runs his pickup truck on the 75-25 percent vegetable oil/diesel combo. He gets the oil from three restaurants in town, filters it himself, and has been selling it for a dollar a gallon to a local cement company, Mr. Dunleavy said.
Town officials were unsure if they would need a state Department of Environmental Conservation permit to use the vegetable oil mix, or if the person selling it to them would need a permit.
Bill Fonda, a spokesman for the DEC, said the town doesn't need a permit to use vegetable oil in its vehicles, but the person producing it may need a permit depending on the process used and whether that process produces any air emissions.
In addition, Mr. Fonda said, if diesel or fuel oil is used in the production of the biodiesel, the producer might need a petroleum bulk storage permit from the county health department. If methanol is used in the production of the biodiesel fuel and more than 185 gallons are being stored in a single container, the DEC would regulate that, whereas smaller amounts would be regulated by the county, Mr. Fonda said.
Mr. Dunleavy said the town would need a tank in which to store the biodiesel.
Town finance administrator Bill Rothaar suggested Mr. Dunleavy check with the town attorney's office to determine what legal steps must be taken to do such an experiment.
"If we go through the town attorney's office, this will never happen," Mr. Dunleavy said. "Everything goes into the abyss there. Why don't we try it and see it if works and then go to the town attorney's office, instead of waiting for them to give us an answer."
"I would like to make sure, through the legal department, that it's appropriate for us to do that," Councilwoman Barbara Blass said.
"We would also have to make sure that there's a vendor out there that can sell us this at a dollar a gallon, and that this vendor has the right permits," Mr. Rothaar said.
tgannon@timesreview.com
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