The City of Temple, Texas’ City council has approved the construction of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station to help the City transition its solid waste fleet to run on CNG. The City council approved a total of $1,619,502 for the station’s design and construction. According to the City, the new station will fuel 14 CNG solid waste fleet vehicles and will be publicly accessible.

The City stated it hired Public Solutions Group to provide a feasibility assessment study for converting the City’s diesel-fueled solid waste fleet to CNG. The assessment studied fuel, infrastructure, and maintenance costs and found that converting the fleet to CNG would deliver a positive ROI.

The City said the station is slated to open later this year (late 2013) and that it will have received the CNG-fueled trucks by the time the station opens.

In addition to CNG-fueled vehicles, the City also converted 16 vehicles to run on propane and built a private propane fueling station to service those vehicles. The CNG said that by including CNG in its analysis, and by providing access to that fuel at the new station, the City anticipates it will avoid costs of $10,000 per vehicle (for propane- and CNG-fueled vehicles). The overall return on investment, including both fuel types, is 7.5 years, the City stated.