DEP Awards $500,000 Grant to Tri-County

Tri-County Industries has been awarded a $500,000 grant from the Department of Environmental Protection for the installation of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fueling station.

With the award, we intend to construct an on-site CNG fueling station to allow our fleet vehicles access to CNG fueling at their home location. This station will be owned by Tri-County Industries and will also be available to the general public. This station will be used daily by a minimum of 10 fleet vehicles and potentially 10 waste collection vehicles. We anticipate that the project will take 18 months to complete.

CNG fuel takes advantage of a resource Seneca Landfill is already generating: methane gas and carbon dioxide. These landfill gases are refined into clean, usable natural gas to fuel our vehicles in place of gasoline.

The award was part of the Alternative Fuels Incentive Grant (AFIG), which provides funding for projects to improve air quality through alternative fuel use. Our fueling station is expected to displace 445 metric tons of green house gases per year. It will also reduce our fleet's fossil fuel consumption by 12,000 gallons anually.

Additionally, Tri-County Industries intends to purchase a waste collection fleet consisting of 10 garbage collection vehicles that will use this fueling station on a daily basis. The CNG-fueled garbage collection vehicles will replace standard diesel engines, resulting in an approximate annual savings of 6,900 gallons of fuel per vehicle.

"These types of projects pay economic and environmental dividends for communities and Pennsylvania at large, and I am very pleased to be able to award these grants," said Acting DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell.

More information about the grant can be viewed on the DEP's website.