BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) –
Livingston Parish officials gathered for the grand opening of a new Waste Management facility in Walker that would help clean up the air in the Capital area.
The new Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fleet facility will cover routes in Livingston Parish and the greater Baton Rouge area.
Waste Management officials announced in February 2014 that the company would start to replacing their diesel-fueled truck fleet in the Capital area with ones that run on natural gas at the end of 2014. The project was expected to last six to eight months.
The new facility is a big step toward Waste Management’s goal of changing the amount of gas emissions released as the new vehicles cut smog-producing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 50 percent.
“We’re saving 22 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per vehicle annually. 8,000 gallons of diesel fuel are saved annually by converting to alternative fuels, in this case CNG,” said René Faucheux, senior manager of government and community affairs with Waste Management Gulf Coast area.
Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks and Walker Mayor Rick Ramsey were at the grand opening of the facility and said it is a significant development for both city and the parish as a whole.