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| Where did downtown Bogotá go? |
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| You can glimpse a few of the buildings. |
On January first, EcoPetrol, supposedly, began distributing distributing very clean diesel across all of Colombia. The new diesel has only 50 parts per million of sulphur - high quality by developing world standards. Previously, the diesel fuel in Bogotá had 300 ppm of sulphur, and that sold outside the city was much dirtier.
These photos show the view of downtown Bogotá from the window of my apartment above La Candelaria in the morning. Most mornings I can barely distinguish the buildings in downtown thru the grey pall.
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| A rare clear day. |
EcoPetrol may very well be distributing clean fuel, altho I'd love to see an analysis by an independent laboratory. (Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a laboratory in Colombia with sufficiently precise equipment that's not connected to EcoPetrol.) But that only demonstrates how much more needs to be done to clear the air.
The city needs to retire older, higly-polluting vehicles and enforce emissions laws on the rest. Even many new cars, especially Chinese and Korean models, leave plumes of smoke behind them.
Where does the smog come from? It's no mystery:
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| A TransMilenio bus, the icon of Bogotá, belches smoke. |
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| This truck was repairing electricity lines along the Circunvular. |
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| A bus belches its way down Carrera 10. |
By Mike Ceaser, of
Bogotá Bike Tours
Posts
11 comments:
Miguel, this is really bad, i don't remember seen the sky so foggy and polluted. My cousin was there last month and, she told me that you can cut with a knife the smoke of the cars. Sad very sad.
M. F.
yes, it's sad, real sad, for our health more than view.
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Anti-pollution laws DO EXIST, but are obviously almost never enforced.
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On the other hand, I could list quite a few useless and even counter-productive laws which ARE enforced.
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Mike
Even here in Barranquilla pollution is an issue... Sometimes on heavily contest roads it's a struggle to breathe! I definitely think something needs to be done
I'm planning to file a tutela this year demanding that authorities enforce the pollution laws.
By the way, I've got a blog, in my bad Spanish, about the pollution problem.
http://airenuevobogota.wordpress.com/
The obligatory gas emission certificate must state the sulphur ppm of the car's exhaust, so you only need a motor capable of running the fuel of your choice and ask for the test in order to determine if the sulphur content is the stated.
Hi Carlito,
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Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't totally understand it. Does the exhaust's PPM really have a direct relationship to the liquid fuel's? Wouldn't the exhaust's contents depend on the individual engine's efficiency and other characteristics?
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Mike
mmm yes, I hadn't thought of that, it could be calculated but it would be to much work for your purposes. Now, I'm not akin to blame national fuels, I've seen Ecopetrol efforts and I believe they sell what they say but that smoke made me very suspicious of the quality of the fuel used, so here are my two alternatives: buses and transmilenio are using the correct fuel but their engines aren't calibrated OR they are using fuel not intended for them (smuggled from Ecuador and Venezuela or altered with a cheaper fuel). In that case I think that the samples to be analysed should come from the bus deposit or track the contaminant bus to it's fuel supplier.
When I studied environmental engineering in la Nacho, they had labs at the Instituto de Ensayos e Investigaciones (IEI), perhaps they could make those analisis of yours or point into the right direction (some of the teachers are also associated with the Instituto de Estudios Ambientales, who has a graduate program about transport and environment)
Hi Carlito,
I suspect that it's a matter of old, uncalibrated engines. If fuel were being smuggled to Bogotá, I'm sure we'd hear about it.
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I talked to the folks at the National U., and their equipment is only accurate down to 400 ppm. The only labs with higher accuracy belong to the petroleum industry.
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Wish there were a way to send some fuel samples overseas.
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Mike
Oh yes, smuggled fuel reaches Bogotá. Bogotá has about the 40% of Colombia's gasoline and diesel consumption, and you see the quantity of cars increasing each year; but you cross that with the sales of fuels in Bogotá and that doesn't add up, the demand of gasoline should be increasing but it has not. Some is explainable by pico y placa, conversion to diesel and gnv but not all.
In fact is really easy to find out if it's smuggled because legal fuel has been marked, so with an special chemical it turns a specific color... but I haven't seen if the due control is operational.
I like how photos of nasty cars belching smoke is a recurrent theme on this blog.
unfortunately, smog-belching vehicles is a recurring theme in Bogotá.
Mike
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