RENSSELAERVILLE — Debate between a politically-divided town board continues over the purchase of a waste-oil furnace. Rather than burning purchased fuel oil, the furnace would run on donated oil, left over from things such as lubricants for car engines.

The town is currently paying $2.79 per gallon for fuel oil, said Town Clerk Kathy Hallenbeck.

The furnace, which would be used to heat the highway garage, has been on the town board’s agenda nearly every month for almost a year. It was approved for purchase at the board’s first meeting this year by Repulicans Jost Nickelsberg, Myra Dorman, and Robert Lansing.

Democratic Councilman Gary Chase was not at the meeting.
"I’m not against this," said Democratic Councilwoman Sherri Pine at January’s meeting. She requested the board delay a vote since Chase, who voiced concerns about hazardous waste at prior meetings, wasn’t present. Pine abstained from voting.

Discussions on a waste-oil furnace began in March of 2006, when the board heard a sales pitch.

In July, Nickelsberg told the board that a furnace that burns waste oil would save the town money.
In October of last year, the board did not accept a bid from Midstate Supply, located in Endicott (Broome County). The board, after hearing from Dennis Jenkinson, did not feel it had enough information, and was not certain of a total price. Nickelsberg, concerned with the coming winter, said, "We’re running out of fall."

The town board, throughout the 11-month period, has not accepted bids and has had to reissue bids.

This week, Nickelsberg and Chase had different information about the waste-oil furnace’s abilities and when it would be used.

Chase told The Enterprise that the furnace would be a supplemental system, or backup, for the highway garage’s existing heating system. The system, he said, consists of four burners, and one needs to be replaced.
"It would only kick on when the doors are open," Chase said of a waste-oil furnace. Chase also said he was skeptical of the cost savings to the town, adding that his main concerns are for safety. He also pointed to the benefits of a waste-oil furnace.
"A good key point is that waste-oil burns hotter," said Chase. "It heats up quicker and shuts off quicker."
Nickelsberg said the waste-oil furnace would be the garage’s main heating supply and would "be used at all times" to maintain a 55-degree temperature. The garage’s existing three furnaces, he said, would be supplemental.

Chase told The Enterprise he was concerned about the number of people who would provide for the furnace’s supply and was uncertain about the chemical contents of oil to be donated by residents.
"We’d have about 2,000 people dumping into it, and we don’t know where it’s coming from or what’s in it," he said.

Chase also speculated it would be hazardous to combine the oil, anti-freeze, and gas.
He said he asked questions about hazardous materials, "And I haven’t seen any answers."
Chase said of the furnace this week, "The thing was never investigated right."
On Jan. 11, Nickelsberg opened a bid from Mike Dzuba of Midstate Supply, Inc. After Pine asked that the board delay the vote on the $10,494 system until its February meeting, because Chase was absent, Nickelsberg went ahead with a vote, stating, "We’re already in the winter."
"We’ve lucked out so far," Pine retorted, because the weather, until then, had been unseasonably warm.

The board, at the behest of Nickelsberg, voted on the purchase of the bid, dated Jan. 4, 2007, and approved the quote, which is valid for 30 days.

After the meeting, Chase asked William Ryan, the attorney for the town, to look into the bid.

The initial request for the bid was put out by order of the supervisor, not by the town board, Ryan told The Enterprise this week, adding that there’s no case law or statute that prohibits a town’s supervisor from requesting bids.
Ryan said the bid did not say "by order of the town board" and when the town reissues the bid, it will be reworded as such.
"I thought it would be more prudent to have the town board do it," he said. "It’s form over content," said Ryan.
"We’re putting another bid in," Nickelsberg confirmed this week. "He’s continually trying to stop this effort to save money," he said of Chase. He added that town residents have already done "major" research on the furnace. Nickelsberg also said David Lewis, a town resident, uses a waste-oil furnace at his farm.

Chase, the son of the highway superintendent, said he hasn’t received answers to his questions about the furnace. He told The Enterprise this week that he was compiling a list of questions for the board’s February meeting.

Midstate’s view

Midstate owner Mike Dzuba told The Enterprise this week that his company has sold approximately 70 waste-oil furnaces to municipalities in the state, minus Long Island. Dzuba recommended a waste-oil furnace to be used as a garage’s primary heating source, with a garage’s existing heating system used as its supplementary source. Dzuba added that waste-oil furnaces have shut-offs if water is in the oil, and for high temperatures. "If there’s any down time, it’s important to have keep the existing (heating) system in place," he said.
"There’s always a small amount of gas in crankcases," he said, adding that there are usually only small amounts. The fluids to stay away from, he said, are cleaning solvents, paint thinners, and mineral spirits, all of which burn but will deteriorate and rust a waste-oil furnace.
"A lot of municipalities keep that in a separate tank," he said.
To determine whether there are deteriorating fluids in waste oil, Dzuba recommended using chlorinated test kits. "You can’t always tell by looks," he said.

Water and antifreeze, which are heavier than oil, he said, will settle to the bottom of the tank.

Waste-oil furnaces, he said, were specifically engineered to burn waste oils. The furnaces his company sells are from Clean Burn, a company based in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
"Clean Burn is a strong advocate of environmental protection and energy conservation," according to its website. "Our multi-oil heating systems, storage tanks and recycling centers — which meet all EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) requirements for used-oil recycling — eliminate extra handling and transportation of used oils and, consequently, help avoid the possibility of used oils entering our water supplies."

The furnaces were engineered to burn hydraulic, transmission, crankcase, and numbers two, four, and five oils, said Dzuba.
"We have service people on the road," said Dzuba, adding that some owners of waste-oil furnaces do their own maintenance.

The burner on the furnace has an hour meter. Maintenance should be performed every year or every 900 hours. As ash builds within the furnace, it becomes less efficient, he said.

Dzuba said that it’s a good practice for a town to have its residents bring their waste oil to the town, and added that bringing oil to a municipality’s garage gives individuals the opportunity to dispose of their waste oil in a friendly manner, as opposed to taking it to a place they aren’t as familiar with.

Long-time waste-oil users

The Greene County Highway Department, which owns the same model waste-oil furnace as the one Rensselaerville recently bid for, has long used a waste-oil-burning furnace, and just recently replaced the one it had used for many years. In years past, the county department used oil from garages, but did not accept oils from residents.
"You really have to know the source," Superintendent Gary R. Harvey told The Enterprise this week.

Now, the department uses only county waste oil to fuel its furnace, he said; the furnace is used in conjunction with the county’s boiler.
Harvey said he thinks the waste-oil furnace has saved the department money, and added, "I don’t have any numbers."
John Foley is sure he has saved money — "serious money." Foley owns a garage in Guilderland and has used a waste-oil furnace for 15 years.
"It works well. Absolutely no problems. You just have to maintain it like anything else," said Foley.
"It’s a state law now, that, if anyone brings [waste oil] in, you have to take it," he said. "Some of it’s good, and some of it’s bad." Though some of the waste oil has been questionable, Foley said that he hasn’t had problems with the furnaces he has owned shutting down or malfunctioning.

Foley recently purchased a new Clean Burn furnace. Yearly maintenance, he said, is performed by service teams at Midstate.

Foley said that he uses the furnace as his primary heating source, with two burners as backups, to heat his 40-by-132-foot garage.

He estimated he burns 3,200 gallons of waste oil each year, and, though the furnace is also capable of burning new fuel oil, Foley said he is never in short supply of waste oil.