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City officials say an unusually high concentration of ethanol in the city's gasoline supply contributed to the breakdown of more than 70 police cars over the weekend, most of which had been repaired and returned to service Tuesday.
More than 200 police cars fueled up at a 24-hour, city-run gas pump by the Fallsway before cars started showing problems, and nearly one-third of the Police Department's patrol contingent was sidelined with engine trouble.
Police doubled up in cars before activating a reserve and shifting administrative vehicles into service.
Officials had expressed concern that the unleaded gasoline might have been mistakenly refilled with diesel, but results from a lab in Towson showed that ethanol was the apparent culprit.
Khalil Zaied, director of general services, said the city's supplier, IsoBunkers of Norfolk, Va., was conducting its own tests and that the city's legal team believes the city can recoup all expenses related to the incident.
Those expenses remained unclear Tuesday, but all of the repair work was done in-house, Zaied said.
"We had folks working literally 24 hours at all stations," Zaied said of the effort to get the police cruisers back on the streets. "They did a wonderful job."
Ethanol is mixed with gasoline at the pumps and is used to reduce carbon monoxide emissions, becoming more widespread in recent years as a replacement for methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, an additive that has led to concerns about groundwater contamination.
Most automobiles are not designed to handle blends with more than 10 percent ethanol, and higher levels of ethanol can cause engine damage.
More than 200 police cars fueled up at a 24-hour, city-run gas pump by the Fallsway before cars started showing problems, and nearly one-third of the Police Department's patrol contingent was sidelined with engine trouble.
Police doubled up in cars before activating a reserve and shifting administrative vehicles into service.
Officials had expressed concern that the unleaded gasoline might have been mistakenly refilled with diesel, but results from a lab in Towson showed that ethanol was the apparent culprit.
Khalil Zaied, director of general services, said the city's supplier, IsoBunkers of Norfolk, Va., was conducting its own tests and that the city's legal team believes the city can recoup all expenses related to the incident.
Those expenses remained unclear Tuesday, but all of the repair work was done in-house, Zaied said.
"We had folks working literally 24 hours at all stations," Zaied said of the effort to get the police cruisers back on the streets. "They did a wonderful job."
Ethanol is mixed with gasoline at the pumps and is used to reduce carbon monoxide emissions, becoming more widespread in recent years as a replacement for methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, an additive that has led to concerns about groundwater contamination.
Most automobiles are not designed to handle blends with more than 10 percent ethanol, and higher levels of ethanol can cause engine damage.
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Etec is right on. Ending this story with "higher levels of ethanol can cause engine damage." cannot be justified by any data what-so-ever. Absolutlly NO engine damage can occur. Poor preformance due to incorrect tuning parameters can occur. Long term use MIGHT effect catalitic converters. A fact originated story that ends with an undocumented editorial opinion about ethanol occures far too often. How about a followup that explains exactly what 'repairs' were preformed. You do ethanol and the country a dis-service with this type of reporting. I use E30 in my legacy vehicles for years and get equal or better milage and better preformance. Give ethanol an accurate break!
Forward_Thinking (09/25/2009, 11:03 AM )