Last Friday, among the grazing goats of the nearby SF Bay Railroad, (used to keep the tracks clear of weeds), I joined the Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, Department of the Environment Director Jared Blumenfeld, Randall Stuewe, the CEO of Darling International and Kim Brandon, President of the Port Commission to announce Darling's planned 10,000,000 gallon biodiesel plant at Pier 92. The facility would allow for the local processing of recycled fats, greases and tallow to biodiesel for use by vehicles. This announcement was in part, the culmination of the efforts by the SF biodiesel community, the rehabilitation of Darling's image in Bayview, the Port, and the Mayor's "green vision" for San Francisco. There is currently a "green jobs", biodiesel intern program, run by the Biofuel Recycling Cooperative, Green Depot and Global Exchange, and funded in part by the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of the Environment which trains youths from Bayview to become skilled in grease collection and biodiesel production. What does this really mean for the City of San Francisco, the Port and the Bayview Hunters Point community, and how did Darling, once one of the city's biggest polluters, change its ways and position itself to become one of the largest producers of sustainable biodiesel in the Bay Area? To understand how this has come to pass, a little history is in order.

Back in 2004, a handful of the city's biodiesel advocates formed the SF Biofuels Cooperative, and sought to make biodiesel more available to its members, first offering B100, (pure biodiesel) at the Olympian Station at 23rd and Third. Their early success led them to partner with groups like the Peoples Fuel Cooperative, (currently supplying biodiesel to Rainbow Grocery), and small companies like Incredible Adventures, a biodiesel-fueled tour bus company specializing in trips to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite. Members met regularly, filled up with biodiesel, shared information, experiences, and networked with their counterparts around California and the country.

When the city of San Francisco wanted to use new, cleaner burning buses, they quickly found that those natural gas buses didn't have the torque needed to traverse the city's steep hills. Faced with the prospect of using the terribly polluting diesel and wary of Berkeley's ill fated attempts, (bad biodiesel ruined a few city trucks), they sought out the SFBC for advice on how to convert their diesel fleet to biodiesel and followed the advice of their experts, Eric Bowen, Ben Jordan, Professor Randall von Wedel, as well "the divas" of Berkeley's Biofuel Oasis, the all-women owned and operated biodiesel station. Alongside MUNI's biodiesel advocate Marty Mellera and the SFDoE's Vandana Bali, the city's biodiesel program was off and running, and Newsom's mandate to convert the entire fleet by December of 2007 became a reality, ahead of schedule. SF is now the largest city in the United States to use biodiesel.

At the behest of the Department of the Environment, the Mayor and Board of Supervisors, the city's Biodiesel Access Taskforce was also created to help the city wend its way through this brave new world of biodiesel. Made up of voting members of the SF biodiesel community and non-voting members of the PUC, the SFDoE, the Port, Fire and Health Departments, the Taskforce and its Marine sub-commitee began crafting recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor on topics of sustainability, quality, incentives, regulations and mandates.

With the success of the the city's biodiesel conversion complete, the move to find or create more sustainable sources was on. Once again the city turned to the SFBC and it's newest group; Jordan's Biofuel Recycling Co-op. Alongside fellow SFBC member Karri Ving, now with the PUC, the "Greasecycle" program was formed. Created to stop the pouring of grease in the city's sewers by restaurants, (and costing millions to clean), Greasecycle began collecting restaurant grease for virtually nothing and turning it into biodiesel, and using its by-product glycerine, into soap. This marvelously successful program had caught the eye of the Chronicle, the New York Times... and Darling.

Darling has been in the grease rendering business here since 1966, and the residents of Bayview will tell you the odors weren't very pleasant. Known as "not very nice neighbors", they had flown a bit under the radar compared to its more toxic neighbors, the Navy Shipyard and PG&E, which were getting the most heat from the Bayview community. Darling had also been in the grease collection game for sometime, charging restaurants to haul their grease away. The biodiesel community had on several occaisions approached Darling about producing biodiesel, but were told, "It wasn't profitable". With the success of the Greasecycle program however, Darling noticed that their grease collection had dropped. They also got wind of the city, the PUC, and its plans for a biodiesel facility.

To it's credit, or the need for self preservation, Darling saw an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone; expand its operations, deal with competition, and yes, even change its carbon footprint. Surprisingly, Darling invested thousands of dollars and installed new "scrubbers and filters", to help mitigate the smell of their rendering operations. This move has been hailed as a significant reduction in odor by all who have lived and worked around the Bayview for years. They also, (and quite unexpectedly, considering their less than stellar reputation), reached out to the SF Biodiesel Taskforce, the SF biofuel community and organizations like Youth Career Development, Green Depot and the Biofuel Recycling Co-op, about employing personnel from their biodiesel environmental justice programs, folks drawn from exclusively Bayview-Hunters Point.

At a recent hearing of the SWAC, the Southern Waterfront Advisory Committee, Darling appeared along with another potential, "green jobs", Port tenant. That potential tenant was chastised for not knowing about programs already in place, thousands of dollars spent in training and a workforce eager to go. When it came time for Darling's presentation, they surprised everyone with the thoroughness of their homework, leading one SWAC member to say, "It's rare we see someone considered a bad neighbor, and turn it around in this way."

With the blessing of the Port and the Mayor, Darling was on it's way. "This facility will serve as a model for cities throughout the world who aim to reduce their carbon footprint and transform their grease waste into useable, sustainable energy," said Mayor Newsom. "Turning waste generated by local restaurants and other businesses into a sustainable fuel source is yet another major step in reaching our goals of carbon neutrality for City Government by 2020, zero emission public transit by 2020, a 75% recycling rate by 2010, and zero waste in 2020."

What does this mean for San Francisco? As it stands now, the city can't collect enough grease to supply its entire diesel fleet or MUNI. With Darling potentially producing the 3,000,000 gallons the city needs, as well as another 6,000,000 for the Port and local distributors, a production plant of this magnitude will represent a paradigm shift in the city's effort to be sustainable. One can only hope it will reduce the cost the city pays for biodiesel, the majority of which currently arrives as soy or canola from the Midwest. Because Darling is one of the world's largest rendering operators, it can also bring in waste and grease by ship or by rail. It's biodiesel plant won't smell either, as the biodiesel "transesterification" process is completely different from its current rendering operation. Darling's Chairman and CEO Randall Stuewe proclaimed, "We are very pleased to be working with both the City and the Port of San Francisco in developing a facility at the Port that will convert used cooking oil from local restaurants into biodiesel."

The SFDoE's Blumenfeld rightly opined that Darling will be producing B100, and when blended locally with 80% petroleum to make the B20 the city currently uses, will mean an 80% increase in supply and a huge reduction in diesel emissions. Not to mention cost. The price of B100 in San Francisco has risen from $2.90 in 2005 to a staggering $5.90 per gallon today. With Darling producing 10,000,000 gallons on the doorstep of the city, the quantity the city will be able to purchase should dramatically reduce it's current costs.

All in all, it appears to a good deal for biodiesel in San Francisco. Darling has promised to add even more scrubbers and filters, hire from the Bayview community for its plant and work closely with it's neighbors, including the Port and the only biodiesel run railroad in the Bay Area, the SF Bay Railroad. It's even added a 1-800 number for residents to call if they detect an odor. As Darling explained at a recent SWAC hearing, they will be able to accurately identify the problem with timely reporting and logs to determine what, if anything caused the odor.

Hopefully, under the watchful eyes of the residents of Bayview, and environmental justice groups like Green Depot and Green Action, the Port, the SF Department of the Environment, the PUC and the biodiesel community, Darling will make good on its promises on making quality, sustainable biodiesel, and employing some of the residents of Bayview-Hunters Point. Darling plans to have it's plant operational by December, 2009.


E. "Doc" Smith, is the Director of Green Depot, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, biodiesel advocacy group and the home of the SF Biofuels Cooperative. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Biofuel Recycling Cooperative. He drives a 2001 VW Beetle which runs exclusively on B100 biodiesel. He can be reached at esmith@greendepot.org