Arcadia USD opens compressed natural gas station

Thanks to nearly $500,000 in grants, the Arcadia Unified School District celebrated the opening of its new compressed natural gas station on Jan. 22 at the district’s maintenance yard on Saint Joseph Avenue, just west of Santa Anita Avenue.
The new CNG station is estimated to save the district up to $40,000 in fuel and maintenance costs per year. It will also continue AUSD’s mission of being a greener and more environmentally friendly district, district officials said.
Compressed natural gas is the cleanest burning fuel and produces 95 percent less carbon monoxide than gasoline and diesel. Arcadia Unified will eliminate an estimated 400 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year, district officials said.
AUSD Director of Operations, Transportation, and Food Services Brook Reynolds spearheaded the project.
“I’m very excited to see the station up and running and our vision come to fruition,” he said. “We are fortunate to be able to work with great partners whose missions and visions of sustainability, technology, education, and being environmentally conscious all align with what we believe in as a district.”
The California Energy Commission contributed $300,000 to the CNG project through a grant, and the Mobile Source Air Pollution Review Committee contributed an additional $175,000, district officials said.
“We are hoping to continue to work with the MSRC and others to launch a phase two of the project and expand our CNG station,” Reynolds said. “Ultimately, we would like to expand and have a second compressor and two additional storage tanks. This would increase our ability to allow other agencies and school districts within our community to use our facility via fast fill.”
In addition, Reynolds said building the CNG station keeps in mind the district’s ideal of staying ahead of the technological curve.
“The Arcadia Unified School District prides itself on continuing to provide an education program that prepares students for the 21st century,” he said. “This is a challenge because many of the industries, technologies, jobs that many of our students perform have not even been invented yet. Educationally, we strive to meet this challenge.”
Sam Emmersen, outreach coordinator with the MSRC, said her organization is glad it was able to help build the CNG station.
“The MSRC applauds (Arcadia Unified School District) for helping to improve air quality by installing this natural gas station,” she said. “We were very happy to partner with (AUSD) on this clean transportation project.”
Emmersen added the MSRC has donated $250 million since the early 1990s throughout Southern California region for projects such as this.
(Shel Segal can be reached at ssegal@beaconmedianews.com).

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