The City of Beverly Hills, Calif., recently opened its new compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station. The new station will fuel the City’s growing fleet of CNG vehicles, which now includes four new refuse trucks.

According to the City, the $1.2 million project will save the City $250,000 each year in estimated fuel costs and will pay back the City’s investment in five to six years (based on comparing the price of CNG to that of diesel fuel).

“This project makes sense for the City and for the region,” said Beverly Hills' Mayor William W. Brien, MD. “With the price of diesel climbing, and no end in sight, it was necessary that we do something to control these costs. In addition, we are proud to do our part to keep the air in the Los Angeles basin clean and livable for Beverly Hills residents and the surrounding communities.”

For the four new refuse trucks, the City purchased CNG models due to a mandate from the California Air Quality Resources Board (CARB). The City received a $550,000 grant from the Southern California Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) to offset the cost of the CNG vehicles and related infrastructure. Out of that amount, Beverly Hills applied $300,000 to help fund the construction of the fueling station and put the rest toward the CNG refuse trucks themselves.

In addition to the new refuse trucks, the City has already purchased a number of CNG models or has converted them to CNG. They include six refuse trucks, four street sweepers, a Honda Civic sedan, and a vactor truck (for cleaning sewers).

Regarding the new CNG fueling station, it features fast- and slow-fill dispensers. It has a total of nine posts with dual-fill hoses for slow-fill dispensing and a single fast-fill dispenser, which can dispense up to 20 gallons within 10 minutes at maximum pressure. It has a production capacity of 653 gasoline gallon equivalents within eight hours and comes with two storage spheres (the City can add one more sphere if greater capacity is needed). The City contracted with Mansfield Equipment Corp. to set up the station.

Beyond fueling up current and future City-owned CNG vehicles, the new CNG station will also allow Beverly Hills to enter into mutual fueling agreements with other public agencies in the region.