October 29, 2021. The city of Fort Smith, Arkansas, is working to install a fueling station that will use alternative fuel to power its trash trucks.
Deputy City Administrator Jeff Dingman said he hopes to have the station, which uses compressed natural gas (CNG), working by the beginning of next year. The project has been delayed by struggles to get materials.
The fueling station costs $1.8 million and the city is spending $373,000 to update its maintenance shop and equip the shop to work on compressed natural gas vehicles.
Compressed natural gas is better for the environment and also costs less than gasoline or diesel — about $1 per gallon.
“There’s been a push for a number of years to try to do something with alternative vehicles for the city’s fleet overall,” Dingman said. In the future, he would like to see all of the city’s trash trucks run on natural gas. The city does not have any trash trucks that use this fuel.
Officials are waiting to see if the city will receive a federal grant that would partially pay for up to 14 trash trucks.
The Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grant pays entities to switch from using diesel to alternative fuels. The grant also requires the entity to destroy the diesel engine that the alternative fuels engine replaced.