on the rroad again

On The Road Again with Biodiesel - Printable Version - October 3, 2006 - 1 Comments

Graphic on Water Bureau vehicles running biodiesel Now that the bureau's fleet has made the conversion to primarily B99 biodiesel (with the option later to reduce that biodiesel content when cold weather sets in and affects biodiesel peformance), comments are flowing toward staff and people connected with the conversion. Some of that discussion is based on the lexicon of biodiesel.

The Oregonian picked up on the Water Bureau's statement that our fleet of "workhorses" (the heavy-duty dump trucks, loaders, backhoes, service trucks and the lighter passenger vehicles) are now fueled with canola oil and restaurant grease available from Oregon sources -- creating a market for those products in Oregon and as Randy Leonard points out, creating new jobs. We last used real workhorses at the Water Bureau in 1918, but this conversion begs for the comparison. You look at a big truck differently when it is emitting a smell that reminds one of our utility workers of doughnuts. Symbolically it becomes a gentler workhorse running on local, vegetable-based fuel.

How about the statement that the bureau is mixing oil and water? KXL quoted Commissioner Leonard saying that water and oil can mix. Drinking water quality does not mix well with petroleum - based products. It gives regulatory compliance folks the shudders. But this metaphor works in one unique way -- the Water Bureau is leading the way in this conversion for the city and other water utilities. The American Water Works Association (AWWA) will release an article on the conversion soon -- and its audience is national water utilities. Portland's action becomes a model and resource for other agencies that use big equipment to move dirt, pipe, and concrete.

Other media leads to stories about the Water Bureau's conversion used interesting language:

OPB: "Portland to be epicenter for biodiesel"
KEX: "Water Bureau fleet goes green"
KEX: "Portland a biodiesel capital"

Some discussions of biodiesel sound like bumper stickers like "Make fries, not war." Others are news because of novelty: a man in Minnesota blogged on a "treehugger" website about his old Jetta. He uses petroleum diesel to start his vehicle in winter cold. When the car warms up, he switches to a second tank he installed full of biodiesel. He says that second tank is the reason a bear attacked his car, broke in the window, tipped the fuel can and gnawed on the fuel tank hoses. The second tank and its hoses are full of recycled restaurant grease that his nextdoor neighbor says smells like cheeseburgers. Bears eat funny things.

Willie Nelson's tour bus is said to run on biodiesel. In most things someone steps up to take a leadership role...and now it's the Water Bureau's turn. "On the Road Again" in a new way.

You get the drift. It's serious business here...but some whimsy makes the workplace a richer place now and then.

Tricia Knoll
Public Information

Graphic: Stickers with this Water Bureau graphic on diesel-powered vehicles indicate which vehicles get filled with biodiesel. Smaller stickers decorate some employee's hard hats.