The Register Guard

Going the extra mile to cut truck vapors

By Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

Date: Jul 25, 2006

Gasoline distributors may soon do their part to keep cancer- causing benzene fumes out of Eugene-Springfield's air by using a vapor-capture device that they've used in Portland, Salem and Medford for 26 years.
Tanker trucks use the devices when they replenish supplies at gas stations. The devices usually consist of second hoses that pipe displaced vapors back into the tanker truck as the fresh gasoline rushes into stations' underground tanks.
Federal law requires tanker drivers to use the devices in most other populous areas of the state and nation - but not in Eugene. That's because three decades ago, when the federal government adopted the requirement, the air in the southern Willamette Valley was cleaner than in many other areas.
So some tanker drivers who use the devices at gas stations up or down the Interstate 5 corridor sometimes skip the procedure in Eugene and Springfield gas stations, because wrestling with the second hose takes extra time and trouble, industry officials say.
The exception is at certain filling stations - the Costco store on Chad Drive in Eugene, for example - where the store insists that delivery drivers use the vapor capture systems.
Using the device seems to many, including the Oregon Petroleum Association, like an obvious thing to do. "At our office, we weren't aware that it wasn't being done in the Eugene area," Executive Director Steve O'Toole said.
Fewer than a half-dozen gasoline distributors operate in Lane County. The Eugene-based Oregon Toxics Alliance reports finding five instances in the Eugene-Springfield area in spot checks the past year when tankers pumped gas at stations without using the devices.
In Eugene, local distributor Tyree Oil Inc. is now requiring its drivers to use the devices. Owner Ron Tyree gave the order this spring. If you give your drivers the direction that says, 'Do it if you have time,' you sort of end up not doing it,' he said. 'We say, 'Do it on all deliveries where the equipment is in place to do it with.' '
Tyree took the initiative after David Monk, president of the Eugene-based toxics group, began talking to gasoline distributors in fsEugene.
Now, Monk and the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency plan to meet with members of the Tigard-based Oregon Petroleum Association to reach a voluntary agreement that all distributors use the devices in Lane County.
"I don't think it's really that much of a problem because it's done basically everywhere else," the association's O'Toole
said. "I certainly see this as probably coming on relatively soon in the Eugene area." The cost to companies would be small, he said. Gasoline vapors not only contain toxics such as benzene, but also foster the creation of ground-level ozone, which is a constituent of smog. Last summer, for the first time in seven years, Eugene- Springfield - twice - experienced ozone levels so high that the air agency warned people with lung conditions to stay inside. Ozone levels have soared during recent hot afternoons,
though not yet as high as last year's hazardous levels.
Most airborne benzene comes from vehicle exhaust. The amount coming from evaporation, such as when tankers fill a gas station, is a small fraction of the total amount of benzene in the air.
Still, Tyree Oil drivers are willing to do their part, Tyree said.
"Our drivers are pretty supportive and very willing to do an extra step. We all love living in Oregon. People really want to help the environment when they can," he said.