The district located in Los Angeles County (California) paid $52,000 for the installation, while the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Committee (MSRC) and the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) contributed the remaining cost of $295,000.
According to Azusa Unified’s transportation manager Lee Garcia, with the new pumps bus drivers will no longer have to refill their vehicles at other facilities, which can take up to an hour round-trip. “When you look at fuel costs and the time it takes (to refuel at other locations), we’re spending 50 percent of what we were spending before,” she said.
It is worth mentioning that AQMD adopted a program requiring school bus operators with more than 15 buses to acquire vehicles with clean burning fuels. With this project, both AQMD and MSRC have helped put 535 CNG school buses on Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernadino and Riverside counties’ roads. In addition, four hundred more will be distributed in the next eight months, according to AQMD officials.
