Cutting-edge fuel testing lab
will protect consumers, public.

 

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s new motor fuel and pesticide testing laboratory is scheduled to be up and running soon.

 

 

Ground was broken in May 2007 for the $1.65 million facility, located in Frankfort near the KDA’s Office of Consumer and Environmental Protection on Corporate Drive.

 

The lab will enhance the KDA’s ability to test motor fuel for quality and octane level. The KDA tests motor fuel to ensure Kentucky does not become a dumping ground for poor quality fuel. The KDA also tests for the presence of MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, a fuel additive banned in Kentucky.

 

The facility will have a biofuel testing component that will help the KDA serve the Commonwealth’s rapidly growing biofuel industry.

 

“With gasoline prices where they are today, it’s more important than ever before that Kentuckians get exactly what they pay for at the pump,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “This state-ofthe- art facility will enable us to ensure that Kentucky consumers are receiving a quality product.”

 

With the lab’s resources, the Department will be able to more comprehensively support its pesticide regulatory programs, following up on complaints and analyzing pesticide residues in the environment.

 

Tom Bloemer, manager of the Weights and Measures Branch of the KDA Division of Regulation and Inspection, said the new facility will be ready to officially begin testing Kentucky gasoline and pesticide samples “by early spring [2008] at the latest,” after the KDA lab’s test results are validated through cross checking them with other labs.

 

The Department currently sends motor fuel samples to an out-of-state laboratory for testing.  As the cost of the test has increased, the number of samples the KDA tests has fallen ten-fold, to fewer than 600 a year. The new lab will have a testing capacity of more than 20,000 samples a year– enough to more than adequately sample motor fuels in Kentucky and offer contract testing services to other agencies and states.

 

Added revenue from contract services would reduce significantly the cost of testing samples to protect Kentucky consumers.

 

Kentucky has approximately 3,500 retail motor fuel locations that sold 3.4 billion gallons of fuel in fiscal year 2005, according to the state Revenue Cabinet.  Bloemer said the lab should begin testing diesel fuel by the end of 2008 and biofuels in 2009. Longerrange capabilities will include testing possible future fuel sources such as propane and hydrogen.  “We may be the second lab in the United States that can look at propane fuels,” Bloemer said. “And we will be able to test hydrogen fuel cells when they become operable.”