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FRANKFORT, Ky. — A new motor fuel laboratory will help the Kentucky Department of Agriculture do an even better job of making sure Kentucky motorists get their money’s worth at the pump. The lab was approved in this year’s session of the General Assembly.
The $1.65 million lab will be an important weapon in the KDA’s consumer protection arsenal at a time when Kentuckians are paying nearly $3 for a gallon of gasoline. The Department is required by law to test gasoline pumps for accuracy and check the quality of motor fuel at each of the 3,500 registered motor fuel retailers in the Commonwealth.
“As a consumer protection and service agency, we test gas pumps to make sure Kentuckians get what they pay their hard-earned money for,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “We also test fuel quality to ensure that Kentucky doesn’t become a dumping ground for bad gas and to enforce our state’s ban on MTBE.” MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a fuel additive that has been banned in Kentucky and other states because it has been found to contaminate groundwater.
Years of budget cuts, exploding costs and rising demand have affected the Department’s ability to test motor fuel for quality and inspect fuel pumps for accuracy. Fuel tests currently are performed by a commercial firm in Nashville, Tenn. The skyrocketing cost of the test has forced the KDA to reduce the number of tests it makes ten-fold, from 6,000 to 600 a year.
“There were 3.4 billion gallons of motor fuel purchased in Kentucky last year, so 600 samples representing 3.4 billion gallons is not acceptable,” said Tom Bloemer, administrative branch manager of the KDA’s Division of Regulation and Inspection. Less than 10 percent of the samples fail the test, which measures standards mandated by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) ranging from foreign matter in the fuel to its octane rating.
Having its own lab will enable the KDA to resume testing at the previous 6,000- to 8,000-sample level. Bloemer would like to see the number increase to as many as 10,000 to 15,000 samples of gas and diesel. The lab will also allow the KDA to increase its biodiesel testing and begin sampling ethanol as the number of biofuel pumps in the state increases.
The lab’s target date to become operational is July 2007. It will be located inside an expansion of the KDA’s Division of Regulation and Inspection headquarters in Frankfort. Bloemer is hoping the lab can contract with bordering states Illinois, Indiana and Ohio to test their fuel.
“It could create a revenue stream,” Commissioner Farmer told a legislative committee in its recently concluded session. “I think it’ll pay for itself in a relatively short period of time.”
Less than 7 percent of the state’s pumps failed to meet state standards for accuracy in 2005. If you suspect that a pump may not be accurate, call the Division of Regulation and Inspection at (502) 573-0282. An inspector will attempt to test the pump within 48 hours of notification.
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