| Biodiesel in the Dragon Run - A Roadmap to Preservation |
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| Photo Source: MPPDC, http://www.mppdc.com/dragon/index.shtml |
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The mission of Clean Cities is essentially to decrease petroleum consumption in the transportation sector. Preservation is sometimes an indirect benefit and often an afterthought resulting from our work, so it was exciting when Virginia Clean Cities got the chance to work on a project where the main goal is preservation and alternative fuels are a way to achieve it.
Located in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia, the Dragon Run Watershed is one of the Chesapeake Bay’s most pristine waterways and encompasses parts of Essex, King and Queen, Middlesex, and Gloucester Counties. The
Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission (MPPDC)’s Dragon Run Steering Committee, the National Oceanic and Atrmospheric Administration, the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission (MPPDC), and the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program are co-sponsoring the development of a Special Area Management Plan, or SAMP, for the†Dragon Run Watershed in order to support and promote community-based efforts to preserve the cultural, historic, and natural character of the Dragon Run, while preserving property rights and the traditional uses within its watershed.
As part of the Dragon SAMP, a
study was conducted in October 2005 to identify and explore economic development activities and opportunities that sustain traditional land uses while enhancing the natural resource base or at least minimizing adverse impacts. Seven areas were selected for further exploration, including biodiesel utilization and production. The study found biodiesel utilization to be an example of an enterprise that fits within the overall goal of sustainable natural resource-based economic development for the Watershed, whether carried out within the public or private sectors.
As a result, Virginia Clean Cities was contracted by the MPPDC to continue further exploration of biodiesel market viability and its potential to fulfill the goal to provide sustainable natural resource-based economic benefit to the watershed community centered around the use and production of biodiesel as a cleaner, healthier, domestic alternative to fossil fuel.
Virginia Clean Cities worked with stakeholders to develop a feasibility study to determine how best to develop the biodiesel market in the Dragon Run watershed. The coalition also developed a strong stakeholder base, and worked with the school districts
in and around the watershed includingof Essex, Middlesex, Gloucester, King and Queen, and Mathews County to introduce resolutions and partnership agreements. Four out of the fiveAll four watershed school districts signed the partnership agreements and passed resolutions encouraging increased use and production of biodiesel.
On March 1, 2008, Virginia Clean Cities was awarded a Clean School Bus USA grant for its proposal on behalf of the Middle Peninsula school districts. In addition to the obvious clean air and health benefits, the Clean School Bus award supports or complements many components of the effort to preserve the sensitive Dragon Run watershed. †School buses in five counties will be retrofitted with diesel oxidation catalysts to reduce diesel exhaust emissions. Idle reduction practices will be reviewed by experts from Argonne National Laboratory and equipment to reduce school bus idling will be considered. School fleet administrators will learn about the air-quality advantages of a new propane-powered school bus. All of the school districts will have the opportunity†to use biodiesel blends to further reduce exhaust emissions and support preservation by using and promoting more widespread public acceptance of a clean, renewable fuel made from soybeans grown on local farmland
that serves as a natural bufferwhose large land tracts to protect the Dragon Run watershed from sprawling development.
The Clean School Bus proposal was a natural stepping stone to further the goals of the Dragon Run watershed preservation project, which Virginia Clean Cities has participated in since February of 2007.
One lesson learned from this project is to look at the mission of your organization holistically and don’t disregard the indirect benefits of your work – sometimes they will pay off, literally.
Visit the Dragon Run Biodiesel Page to find out more about the project.
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