AMHERST — At least once a day, a Department of Public Works truck departs from the transfer station on Belchertown Road with dumpsters filled with trash and recyclables to be transported to sites in Northampton, Holyoke or Springfield.
With a $140,438 grant from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, part of the settlement money for Volkswagen’s violations of the Clean Air Act — and a likely match with about $37,000 from the town’s solid waste enterprise fund — Amherst will be replacing its aging diesel tri-axle roll-off truck with a more efficient diesel truck, cutting down the amount of diesel gas used by about 1,150 gallons annually.
Department of Public Works Superintendent Guilford Mooring said replacing the inefficient truck will mean a substantial reduction in use of carbon fuels for the same trips.
Typically, the truck goes from the transfer station to Valley Recycling in Northampton, Sonoco Paper in Holyoke or the Material Recycling Facility in Springfield. The truck also does other hauling, such as moving a container of waste from the Amherst Regional High School to Valley Recycling, or a roll-off container of old steel beams from a demolished bridge to Sullivan Metals in Holyoke.
The grant is part of a round in which the state is providing $7.5 million for 98 projects across the state that will reduce air pollution and electrify transportation systems.
Sustainability Coordinator Stephanie Ciccarello worked with Mooring to secure the grant.
“This fits in with the overall goals of reducing the town’s carbon footprint that we have been working on for years,” Ciccarello said in a statement. “I look forward to exploring other options to utilize these funds for other departments in the future.”
Ciccarello said the new truck should be on the road sometime in the next six months, though Amherst has 18 months to make the purchase.
About $50 million remains in what had been $75 million in settlement funds overseen by the DEP. Amherst officials say they intend to apply again to the next round of grants.
Late last summer, the Town Council received some criticism after it opted to move forward with spending up to $90,000 to purchase a new diesel-powered school bus, rather than pursue a grant from the settlement money to buy an electric bus that could cost $325,000 or more.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
