Moore celebrates CNG facility to fuel sanitation vehicles
MOORE — Moore city leaders this week celebrated a new compressed natural gas refueling facility for the city’s sanitation trucks.
The city has used CNG trash vehicles since 2011, using public retail locations to refill until the central station at 512 NW 27 opened in late December.
“This will allow us to increase our route sizes and be more efficient,” Assistant City Manger Stan Drake said. “We won’t be going to refuel during the day because the trucks will be refueling at night when the drivers are at home. That’s the main benefit. Economically, it should be better as well.”
Fueling overnight at the central facility will save each driver about 30 minutes a day, Public Works Director Richard Sandefur said.
“Four days a week for a year, that’s a lot of saved time,” he said.
Moore operates eight CNG-powered trash trucks and one CNG knuckle boom vehicle — a truck with a crane designed to collect and haul large items. The city expects to add another CNG trash truck and another CNG knuckle boom later this year, Sandefur said.
The new fueling center has pumps for 12 trucks and is designed to expand to 15 fueling pumps if needed.
The station is operated by Oklahoma City-based Sparq Natural Gas. The Moore facility is Sparq’s fifth CNG station in Oklahoma and its 10th in the region.
“Sparq is committed to providing Oklahoma natural gas vehicle operators a regional network of high-performing, attractive, and conveniently located CNG stations,” Sparq CEO Norman Herrera said. “Oklahoma’s public sector can benefit from private investment in CNG infrastructure, allowing for their entry — and cost savings — into CNG fueling to be seamless.”
The project is a public-private partnership, with Sparq and its partners putting up the roughly $700,000 cost for the facility built on city property. The city agreed to buy a certain amount of fuel at a set price.
“Typically a city manager would have to pay for this kind of project through a bond election, a capital campaign or through the operating budget. That’s not something most cities typically budget for,” Herrera said. “So Sparq comes in with our investors, and we provide the city a benefit they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get.”