2010 Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative Leadership Group Meeting and Awards Presentaion
The 2010 Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative Leadership Group meeting was held on June 30 and July 1, 2010, at the DoubleTree hotel in Chicago, IL. On this page you will find copies of the presentations given, the meeting agenda, and other materials that were handed out to attendees. On the second half of this page, you can learn more about the organizations and individual that won this year's Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative Leadership Group awards.
Leadership Group Meeting Materials:
- Agenda (PDF) (2 pages, 14 K)
- Meeting Attendees (PDF) (1 page, 46 K)
- FY2009/FY2010 DERA Grant awards summary (PDF) (4 pages, 19 K)
- National Clean Diesel Campaign: Past, Present and Future (PDF) (23 pages, 1.5 MB)
- National View/Update from Washington (PDF) (7 pages, 243 K)
- Midwest Air Quality (PDF) (26 pages, 3 MB)
- Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative Update and Funding Status (PDF) (30 pages, 1.2 MB)
- MCDI's Past, Present, and Future (PDF) (13 pages, 652 K)
- State Clean Diesel Coalition presentations
- Illinois
(PDF) (18 pages, 1.3 MB)
- Project summary (PDF) (1 page, 69 K)
- Indiana (PDF) (10 pages, 706 K)
- Michigan (PDF) (21 pages, 375 K)
- Minnesota (PDF) (18 pages, 2.1 MB)
- Ohio (PDF) (11 pages, 3178 K)
- Wisconsin (PDF) (17 pages, 1.6 MB)
- Illinois
(PDF) (18 pages, 1.3 MB)
- MCDI 2010 Leadership Group Meeting attendees and 2010 MCDI LG Award winners (PDF) (2 pages, 153 K)
2010 Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative Leadership Recognition Program
The 2010 Midwest Clean Diesel Leadership Recognition Program raises awareness and recognizes individuals or organizations that have made significant, measurable improvements in air quality through the development and/or implementation of clean diesel actions (i.e. retrofits, replacements, fuels, education, leveraged funding, etc.). There are many ways to demonstrate leadership. This may include bringing organizations together to identify and implement emissions reduction projects, education and outreach, leveraging of funding, technology development, innovative financing, and other efforts that demonstrate leadership. These awards signify the recipients commitment to air quality improvement and clean diesel actions.
2010 Leadership Group Award Winners
Respiratory Health Association Of Metropolitan Chicago
Joel J. Africk, President and CEO
- The Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago is a non-profit organization that began its long history of working for cleaner air and human health since 1906, when they started work to address tuberculosis outbreaks in Chicago
- In 2007, RHAMC became an independent lung health organization, with the same core missions of addressing issues that affect Chicagoans’ respiratory health
- RHAMC pulled together and headed up the Illinois Campaign to Clean Up Diesel Pollution group. This preceded the Illinois Clean Diesel Workgroup and was a big part of their advocacy mission to help jump start diesel awareness, funding, and to “get things going” early on before EPA funding came about.
- RHAMC projects include:
- Successfully urging the Chicago Transit Agency to adopt ultra-low sulfur fuel, three years ahead of schedule (2003)
- Successfully urging the City of Chicago to adopt a 5-minute No-Idling policy for its city-owned trucks and cars and the Illinois Department of Transportation to require the use of diesel equipment with cleaner fuel and pollution controls for their construction projects, beginning with the Dan Ryan Expressway Reconstruction (2005)
- Helping pass the state’s first No Idling Diesel Law. The law limits diesel truck idling in the Metropolitan Chicago and Metro East St. Louis areas to 10 minutes.
- Their letters of support have helped many organizations receive Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding for important clean diesel projects across Northeast Illinois including the IL EPA clean diesel funds, locomotive projects and various retrofit projects for transit agencies. (ongoing)
- RHAMC advocated for and aided in the development of clean diesel contract specifications at the state and county levels, and they are currently involved in the creation of such language for the City of Chicago
- RHAMC works closely with the Illinois EPA, and has assisted in implementing over 100 successful clean diesel projects throughout the state.
- It is because of these efforts, especially early on, that we have such a robust clean diesel community in IL and without their advocacy and raising expectations on government to take action to protect public health we would not have made the advances to reduce diesel emissions. Brian Urbaszewski and Ashley Collins have been working in diesel issues since before we established the leadership Group and have been valuable advocates to support the program.
Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
Brandy Toft, Air Quality Specialist
- The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe’s Reservation encompasses over 865,000 acres in Northern Minnesota.
- For the past nine years, the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe have taken active steps to reduce air emissions on their lands
- In 2006 and 2007, the Tribe held air quality workshops focused on diesel emissions, which were attended by Tribal staff, as well as attendees from other Tribes, local school districts, county highway departments, community members, and local governments.
- Relationships made during these two workshops grew into the following clean diesel projects, totaling almost $510,000:
- The Tribe partnered with Minnesota Environmental Initiative in 2007 to retrofit 65 school buses in five rural school districts on and off the Reservation that serve the Leech Lake community
- In the summer of 2009, Diesel multi-stage filters and DOC’s were installed on 8 garbage trucks, pump trucks, and dump trucks through enforcement funds
- Partnering again with MEI in 2009 using ARRA funds, the Tribe has installed 10 DOC’s on a well rig, vehicle hauler, and 6 municipal vehicles, and have repowered, and are in the process of repowering two municipal trucks.
- Using State of Minnesota Clean Diesel Grant funds, the Tribe is just about to complete installation of 8 more DOC’s on dump trucks, and a wheel loader, and have repowered a road grader.
- The Tribe was recommended for award for an EPA clean diesel grant to repower four dump trucks, which will occur over the next two years.
- Through these projects, the Tribe has reduced 1,260 tons of NOx, 18 tons of PM, 61 tons of hydrocarbons, 68 tons of CO, and over 4,500 tons of CO2
- The type of leadership and enthusiasm the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe exhibits is critical for successful implementation of clean diesel projects. They are the most active tribe in Region 5 and a model for other tribes to emulate.
The Interlake Steamship Company
Mark Barker, President
- The Interlake Steamship Company has operated shipping vessels on the Great Lakes since 1913, moving bulk cargo across the water system.
- Interlake Steamship Company owns and operates the Paul R Tregurtha, the largest vessel operating on the Great Lakes.
- At over 1,013 feet in length, the Tregurtha can carry around 70 tons of coal or ore
- From mid-2009 until early this spring, Interlake Steamship repowered the main propulsion and auxiliary engines of the Tregurtha, a $14 million dollar project
- This project was not undertaken to meet any EPA regulations, instead Interlake realized that the new engines would not only affect air quality, but their bottom line
- The newly installed engines use substantially less fuel and produce less emissions than the old engines, all while requiring less maintenance.
- In addition, Interlake installed a waste heat recovery economizer and a shaft generator, which provide the vessel with steam and electricity without the need for operating auxiliary boilers or service generators while the vessel is operating on open waters
- The new engines and energy efficiency improvements are estimated to reduce 236 tons of NOx, 295 tons of PM, and over 24,000 tons of CO2 from the Tregurtha every year
- As we move into more work in the marine sector, we will look for models like the Interlake Steamship Company to encourage others to take these steps.
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning
Randy Blankenhorn, Executive Director
- The Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning is Chicagoland’s metropolitan planning organization, or MPO, and are responsible for programming the Federal Highway Administration’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funds throughout the metropolitan area since the CMAQ program started in 1992
- CMAQ funds are primarily for addressing air quality issues through traffic flow and road construction projects, but there has always been a means to directly address diesel emissions through this fund
- Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Transportation, the Illinois EPA, Regional Transportation Authority, Chicago Department of Transportation, and county and municipal governments, has funded direct diesel emissions reduction projects since CMAQ’s inception, but over the last several years the agency has consistently and aggressively directed CMAQ projects that directly address diesel engines
- Since 2005, CMAP has purposed over $72 million in federal CMAQ funds to clean diesel projects in Northeastern Illinois. The projects have included early implementation of ultra low sulfur fuel, diesel retrofits for transit buses, school buses and municipal vehicles, genset locomotives and support of the Illinois EPA Chicago area diesel retrofit program which funds state coalition projects.
- CMAP has increased the amount of CMAQ funding spent on clean diesel activities despite CMAQ allocations to Chicagoland remaining stagnant over that time period
- The reductions associated with these projects are estimated to be: over 300 metric tons of particulate matter and over 8 thousand metric tons of NOx
- CMAP is being recognized for their accomplishments to support clean diesel actions as well as their program transparency and are a model that we encourage other MPOs to emulate. Ross Patronsky, Senior Planner, has been a participant in the Leadership Group since its inception and has been a valuable resource to the group.
Special Individual Recognition by the MCDI Leadership Group
Brian Mormino, Cummins, Inc.
Brian Mormino is an individual who has made a significant contribution to not just the Midwest Clean Diesel initiative, but to the nation-wide push for voluntary diesel actions. In fact, without his work, there might not even be a Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative! Mr. Mormino, who is now with Cummins, was a founding co-chair for the Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative and also on the National level, one of the people responsible for the existence of a national program to reduce diesel emissions.
On the national level he helped create the National program that we see today through his role in Senator Voinovich’s administration. The language he helped craft ultimately became the Diesel Emissions Reduction provisions in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, or DERA. This action created a central funding source at the federal level to support competitive programs and a state allocation to create programs at the state level across the country.
As EPA had created a National Clean Diesel Campaign, the EPA regional offices were beginning for form their own coalitions and create a structure and network to focus on clean diesel actions. Mr. Mormino served as the private sector co-chair from his new role at Cummins. It was through his efforts that private industry became such a strong part of the Midwest Clean Diesel Initiative. He got them on board and convinced them to sign on to collaborative principles to set the direction of MCDI.
He continues as a co-chair of MCDI and provides overall program direction and insight into how we can make improvements to grow the network and implement meaningful projects that support larger goals.
Without his efforts, the National and Regional campaigns to reduce diesel emissions would not have flourished so we thank him or all his work and for getting us all, nationally, to this level of accomplishment.