Schools

Murrieta Valley Unified Reveals 10 New CNG-Powered Buses

When the new school year begins Wednesday, the district will have retired 10 of its 47 diesel buses and replaced them with CNG-powered ones.

The Murrieta Valley Unified School District on Thursday celebrated the addition of 10 alternative fuel buses to its aging fleet.

“We have an older fleet, over 20 years old, so this is a big thing for all of us,” said Ula Justus, a driver instructor who joined her colleagues, the school board and district officials Thursday afternoon for a reveal of the buses that was two years in the making.

When the new school year begins Wednesday, the district will have retired 10 of its 47 diesel buses and replaced them with CNG-powered ones. Of the 10 new, two are for serving special education students.

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The decision to begin converting the fleet was first approved in May 2011 when the school board approved $2 million in funding for the project.

That approval led to the district receiving an additional $2.3 million in funding awards from Air Quality Management District, Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Committee and California Energy Commission.

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“The district’s partnership with these agencies will allow Murrieta to begin its new school year on Aug. 14 with the addition of 10 new CNG Bluebird buses and a recently constructed CNG fueling system,” said Karen Parris, spokeswoman for the district.

The buses were purchased through A-Z Bus Sales, Inc. of Colton and paid for through a $1.75 million grant by the South Coast Air Quality Management District with the district contributing only $40,000, according to Parris.

The CNG fueling infrastructure, complete with a CNG generator, will provide 16 time-fill refueling stations that will fuel up to 32 buses. Construction was made possible with the assistance of a $244,000 grant for from the MSRC and $300,000 from CEC. The CNG fueling facility was designed and built by Go Natural Gas, Inc., of San Clemente.

Superintendent Pat Kelley said it was a proud day for him.

“What I am most excited about is we are doing some of the right things that need to be done,” Kelley said. “But for the long term we are putting money back into the classrooms by taking out this project. And for a district like ours, that is going to be important moving forward. So I am very excited about it.”

The district receives about $100,000 per year from the state to fund its transportation needs, and the rest--$3 million per year--comes from the district’s general fund.

Instant savings will be realized on fuel, with CNG costing about 50 cents a gallon versus $3.50 a gallon for diesel.

Five of the new buses will be used in the mountainous areas of De Luz, La Cresta and Tenaja, while the remainder will be used in the flat lands around town.

Assistant Superintendent Stacy Coleman stressed that the funding for the project was not taken from the general fund. Rather, it was part of $13 million set aside for solar improvements and the buses; and ultimately from $56 million the district was repaid by the state for the construction of its newest campuses, Murrieta Mesa High School and Dorothy McElhinney Middle School. (Read more about the funding here.)

The district still has 13 regular education diesel buses which qualify for replacement, eight diesel buses that are too new to qualify and 16 gas-powered smaller special education buses. 

“Within the next two years, we hope to get 10 more CNG buses,” said Jack Martin, director of transportation.

Martin explained that current legislation, Assembly Bill 923, allows for AQMD’s bus replacement program to go through June 20, 2015.

“There are two bills in the legislature, AB 8 and SB 11, and they will go up for a vote within six weeks. If they pass, the program will be extended until 2023,” Martin said.

In that event, the district would aim to convert its entire fleet, he said.

In 2012, Murrieta Valley Unified was among 32 districts to be awarded part of $34.2 million for replacing pre-1994 buses or retrofitting newer ones.

CNG school buses on average emit four times less smog-forming nitrogen oxides and 10 times less particulate matter than the diesel buses they replace, according to AQMD.

“In addition, CNG buses emit no diesel soot, which is the source of about 70 percent of all air pollution cancer risk in the region,” the agency states on its website.

The move to a partial CNG fleet puts the district among 15 percent of the state’s 850 school districts, according to Matt Essex, regional sales director for A-Z Bus Sales.

“Ten years ago, it was only 1 percent,” Essex said. “You saw the future.”


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