Manteca is expanding its fleet of transit buses that are powered by food waste and methane gas from the treatment of municipal wastewater.

The City Council Tuesday authorized purchasing a pair of 29-foot-long Compressed Natural Gas-powered low floor transit buses from Gillig of Livermore for $1.5 million.

The cost will be covered by state and federal grants specifically earmarked for transit and switching from fossil fuel powered buses to those with a smaller carbon footprint.

The city currently has one CNG-powered bus. It is 35 feet long and carries up to 31 passengers.

The bus fleet has two fixed route 24-foot long gas powered cutaway buses that will exceed their useful life benchmark (ULB) of 200,000 miles and will be ready for replacement next year.  

A staff report said it is not cost effective to continue maintaining and operating them on a daily basis once they have met or exceeded their ULB of 7 years or 200,000 miles

 It will take approximately 15 months from the time of order until the buses will be in service.

The City of Manteca transit system operates both fixed route and paratransit services..

Manteca fuels its existing CNG bus overnight at a facility at the wastewater treatment plant that is also used to fuel solid waste collection trucks.

The city’s entire  solid waste fleet will eventually be replaced with CNG powered trucks. The plan is the same for buses.

That means the food waste tossed by Manteca restaurants, supermarkets, and other large sources along with the methane gas from the wastewater treatment plan will power city garbage trucks and buses.

Methane gas is the leading cause of greenhouse gas concerns.

By converting the methane to fuel, it isn’t burned off into the atmosphere at the wastewater treatment plant.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com