LANSING – Michigan will continue its efforts to expand the number of ethanol pumps in the state despite action from Underwriters Laboratories decertifying those pumps earlier this month.

The issue came to light Thursday with news articles about E-85 pumps being closed in Ohio, but Michigan officials said that was likely unrelated to the UL decertification, and they said they were moving forward with plans for grants and loans to encourage more placement of the pumps in the state.

Current state permits for fuel pumps require that they carry a UL certification, but Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Robert McCann said the department was modifying coming permits to allow the pumps to obtain that certification within a year, the time UL is expected to work out its issues with the pumps.

“We’re not going to be shutting down any of the ethanol pumps and we’re going to continue to work with them to fulfill Governor Granholm’s desire to expand this much more over he next year,” McCann said.

Deputy Fire Marshall Tony Sanfilippo said the Bureau of Fire Services has been working with the pump manufactures, UL, and the filling stations since UL decertified the pumps October 5.

“The industry knows that they’ve got some issues with the pumps but there have been absolutely no failures with these pumps,” Sanfilippo said. “We don’t consider it to be any major threat to consumers.”

And he said the bureau would be putting out a bulletin shortly that it would not be taking action against anyone using the pumps. “We’re working in collaboration with the DEQ to come up with Fire Marshall’s Bulletin explaining that we are not going to be looking to go out and tag any of the E-85 pumps,” he said.

UL pulled its certification of the pumps over concerns that, over time, the ethanol could deteriorate some of the materials. “Research indicates that the presence of high concentrations of Ethanol or other alcohols within blended fuels makes these fuels significantly more corrosive.

This may result in the fuel chemically attacking the materials used in fuel dispenser components, and may ultimately degrade the dispenser’s ability to contain the fuel,” the testing group said in a posting on its website. “While UL has no evidence of field issues related to this application, we are suspending authorization to use the UL Mark on components used in dispensing devices that will dispense any alcohol blended fuels containing over 15 percent alcohol until updated certification requirements are established and the effected components have been found to comply with them.”

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