MBTA agrees to reduce diesel emissions, will pay EPA $225K fine for past pollution

BOSTON – The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority will start using ultra-low sulfur fuel to power its engines and will reduce idling under a $2 million consent agreement reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The agreement, subject to court approval, was announced Thursday after the EPA and U.S. Justice Department accused the MBTA of excessive locomotive idling at the Widett Circle layover facility in South Boston and the Greenbush line station in Scituate, Mass.
As part of the agreement, the MBTA and the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co., which operates the trains, agreed to install or upgrade electric plug-in stations to provide electric auxiliary power during layovers. When auxiliary power is not available, trains must draw electricity from their diesel engines to power lights and ventilation.
The agreement also calls for all 80 trains to switch to ultra-low sulfur diesel at an estimated cost of $1 million and install less-polluting auxiliary engines on 14 locomotives by December 2012. The companies will also pay a $225,000 fine.
The EPA and Justice Department said the agreement would lower carbon dioxide emissions and improve the health of nearby residents and the environment.
MBTA service runs to Providence and will soon extend to new stations at T.F. Green Airport in Warwick and at Wickford Junction in North Kingstown. MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said none of those stations will see new anti-idling equipment because no trains lay over at them. Instead, local trains are kept at a facility in Pawtucket, which already includes such equipment, he told Providence Business News Thursday.
There are currently no plans to build layover facilities at any Rhode Island stations, said R.I. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Dana Alexander Nolfe.