When Mark Schaff looks at I-70 in Etna Township, he sees an interstate with untapped potential.
Schaff wants state transportation officials to allow the township to plant biofuel crops such as safflower, dwarf sunflower and canola along the interstate and in the median. In addition to saving the state money for mowing, the crops can be sold for profit or processed into biodiesel fuel that then can be used to run state and township vehicles.
Schaff, a member of Etna Township's economic-development committee, got the idea after reading about a similar program in Utah. It has started a national movement called FreeWays to Fuel that seeks to convert underused state land to biofuel crop production.
North Carolina planted crops this summer, and programs are to start next summer in Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia and Tennessee.
Ohio spends about $17 million a year mowing state rights of way, he said.
Dallas Hanks, a doctoral student at Utah State University, originally pitched the idea to Utah transportation officials in 2006. The 47-year-old said the years of trial and error there have taught him valuable lessons about growing crops on roadsides that can now be adapted to other locations.
After some setbacks, Hanks said, he was able to develop planting and harvesting methods that allowed the crops to flourish on heavily compacted road gravel covered by a thin layer of topsoil, conditions similar to most freeway rights of way.
"We've been planting on sidewalks, in terms of compaction of soil," Hanks said.
Scott Varner, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation, said past ideas about growing cash crops in state rights of way have never really blossomed because of concerns about safety and initial investment costs.
"With the number of highway workers killed and injured over the past year, we have seen the danger that crews are in when working along the side of a busy interstate," he wrote in an e-mail. "Increasing the number of people and the number of times crews would be out 'farming' the median would create additional risk. It is simply too dangerous to have farmers tending to crops on the median of an interstate."
Hanks said that's a common response, but he noted that biofuel crops are a twice-a-year venture. The crops are planted in spring and harvested in fall with no additional maintenance required in summer. Compare that with the number of times road crews are out mowing grass, and the project actually is much safer, he said.
Also, it is designed to have states work with local farmers to plant and harvest the crops for a share of the proceeds. Because farmers already have all the needed equipment, there is no upfront cost for the state.
The program works because the state already owns the land and biodiesel production is commercially viable, Hanks said. The project also protects agricultural land for food production and can spruce up roadways.
Schaff will update his committee on his proposal at a meeting at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the township's community center. While he envisions saving both the state and the township money, he said there's also a bit of Buckeye pride in his proposal, too.
"If they can make this work in Utah," he said, "we have to be able to do this in Ohio."
©2010, The Columbus Dispatch
