Cleaner Fuels Urged Again for City’s Trash Trucks

Despite dismal failures in the past, some Los Angeles officials are proposing to dramatically speed the conversion of the city’s fleet of 600 diesel trash trucks to cleaner-burning fuels.

Officials have cited pollution hazards in earlier attempts to ditch diesel. Just last Thursday, the local Air Quality Management District emphasized that diesel exhaust causes cancer in pollution-choked Los Angeles.

But the catalyst for the most recent push is a desire to minimize the harsh effects of the reopening of the Sunshine Canyon Landfill in Granada Hills, which would require hundreds of diesel truck trips per day near a residential neighborhood.

An order has been placed for 10 new natural gas powered Caterpillar trucks, expected to be delivered in mid-2000.

The proposal has put a new spotlight on the health concerns over diesel engines, which send cancer-causing particulates into the air.

“Diesel is highly carcinogenic,” said Councilman Mike Feuer. “It constitutes 70% of the toxics in our air. We should be requiring operators of refuse trucks to use clean-burning vehicles as a way of promoting basic public health in the neighborhoods of our city.”

Feuer proposed that all of the approximately 65 trucks operated by Browning-Ferris Industries at its Sunshine Canyon Landfill be converted to alternative fuel within three years.

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The motion, to be considered Tuesday by the City Council, further requires that 75% of all trucks using the landfill, including those owned by the city and other haulers, be converted to clean fuels within six years, contingent upon a determination by a city task force that the conversion is financially and technically feasible.

Feuer wants the reopening of the landfill, tentatively approved on a 9-5 council vote, conditioned on the diesel conversion.

Because the city cannot easily designate which of its trucks will use the landfill on a given day, the effect of the proposal would be to require conversion of the entire fleet, according to city officials.

Feuer also proposed placing the trash business on a franchise basis, which would allow the city to force haulers to convert some of their fleet to alternative fuels.

The proposals have the backing of environmentalists, including Tim Carmichael, executive director of the Coalition for Clean Air, who says the city has been too slow to replace its trash trucks with clean-fuel vehicles.

“The city needs to lead by example,” Carmichael said. “The evidence is now overwhelming that diesel exhaust poses a serious threat to our health.”

But others are concerned that the city is rushing into something before it fully grasps the implications, both for the city budget and the environment. The clean-fuel trucks can cost $25,000 to $60,000 more than regular diesel trucks, although an anti-pollution agency provides grants to help make up the difference.

Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said he opposes the Sunshine Canyon motion and instead wants a comprehensive review of the diesel issue. Ridley-Thomas said he is worried that setting strict standards might lead some haulers to send their diesel trucks to more distant landfills, adding to the pollution problem.

Feuer said his motion provides plenty of flexibility to delay or abandon conversion if the city task force determines through additional testing that it is not technically or financially feasible.

He said technology is improving by leaps and bounds. Since the city bought its first two clean-fuel trucks two years ago, 21 new alternative fuel engines have been introduced by manufacturers.

Waste Management Inc. is testing 31 natural-gas trucks, many at its landfill in Palm Desert, said Kent Stoddard, a company spokesman. The city of Los Angeles is also using natural-gas street sweepers.

Feuer said the city can help promote advances in the technology and pricing of alternative fuel trash trucks by taking a bigger step into the market.

“The technology moves forward based to some degree on demand,” Feuer said. “By making this push, requiring these standards to be adhered to, we are helping to create the manufacturing infrastructure that would prevent anybody down the road from saying we don’t have the technology.”

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Two years ago, the city bought two compressed-natural-gas trucks for tests. But soon afterward the Sanitation Bureau noted that, when used in the west San Fernando Valley, the trucks had difficulty getting up hilly streets without rolling back, causing safety concerns.

In addition to torque and power problems when the trucks were carrying 10-ton loads on hills, the vehicles were continually in the shop because of computer problems. There were also problems that knocked private fueling stations out of operation, forcing the city to leave the trucks in the yard, said Alvin Blain, the city’s fleet services manager.

In the end, the two trucks were sent to the flats of South-Central Los Angeles for less demanding service.

Blain said the city is now ready to embark on a limited second experiment with the latest generation of truck, a dual-fuel vehicle that can shift between natural gas and diesel when extra power is needed to haul heavy loads up steep grades.

“We are going to find out for ourselves whether they work,” Blain said.