Even towboats go green: Retrofit limits emissions

Pittsburgh’s three rivers comprise the country’s largest inland port, and river traffic is a significant source of local air pollution. With a $1.5 million state grant, one major river user is taking a step towards limiting its diesel emissions. Consol Energy will retrofit the engines of Champion Coal, a towboat that moves freight along a 200-mile stretch of the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers, consuming more than 600,00 gallons of diesel fuel annually.

The engine upgrades will reduce harmful air emissions by more than 86 tons per year and save 40,000 gallons of fuel. The rebuilt engines will extend the Champion Coal’s service for another 30 years.

As diesel emissions get fingered for the high levels of fine particulates in southwestern Pennsylvania air, the contribution of off-road polluters, like construction vehicles and river barges, is getting more attention.

The Consol project “is a first for us,” says Carl Tinkham of Cleveland Brothers of Murrysville, which will handle the retrofit project. “We do a fair number of construction vehicle retrofits, and we can also handle diesel locomotive engines.”

One hundred tugboats move freight barges along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, with about 30 operated by Consol. Allegheny County contains 102 of the 191 piers, wharves and docks in the seven-county area around Pittsburgh.

Source: Carl Tinkham, Cleveland Brothers
Writer: Chris O’Toole