The city of Longmont has won the Water Environment Federation’s 2021 Project Excellence Award, a national distinction granted to innovative projects in the water sector.
According to a press statement, the city’s Public Works and Natural Resources department and its consultants, Fort Collins firm CGRS Inc. and California company Carollo Engineers Inc., won for the biogas treatment and renewable natural gas (RNG) fueling station project, a resource recovery and reuse effort that treats and converts biogas produced at the city’s wastewater treatment plant into RNG for vehicle fuel. The project was the first of its kind along the Colorado Front Range.
“It was an honor to receive this award on behalf of the city,” John Gage, a senior civil engineer with the city, said in a statement. Gage served as project manager. “This project is a prime example of how municipalities can take a holistic view of their resources and services to develop innovative solutions.”
Biogas is an energy-rich by-product of a wastewater treatment plant’s anaerobic digestion process that, without proper infrastructure or a reuse plan that captures its benefits, utilities often waste. However, a treatment system can convert the waste gas into RNG, which can then be converted to compressed natural gas that serves as a low-cost renewable fuel. In Longmont’s case, it is used to power trash trucks.
Since the biogas-upgrading system and vehicle-fueling station came online in March 2020, the city has offset nearly 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel per year, not only saving up to $300,000 annually in fuel costs but also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by roughly 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year — the equivalent of removing 200 cars from the road, according to information from CGRS.
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