Manteca’s solid waste trucks will be costing ratepayers $110,000 less than their counterparts in most California cities where the drive to achieve zero-emissions means going electric.

It’s because of a decision  Manteca leaders made more than a decade ago to address a need to reduce methane gas emissions at the wastewater treatment plant by diverting them into a process that produces biogas to fuel solid waste collection trucks.

As a result, the solid waste trucks Manteca is buying are $490,000 a pop as opposed to electric garbage trucks costing $600,000 each.

The lower-priced trucks are reflected in the proposed rate hikes.

The City Council is expected to decide at their June 20 meeting to set a new date for the protest hearing for the pending rate hike.

It originally was scheduled for May 20 but then was postponed. It is now expected to take place sometime in August.

In March, Santa Cruz was one of the first cities in Northern California to buy an electric garbage truck. It cost $600,000 plus $190,000 for a dedicated charging station.

The truck’s batteries hold a charge based on normal operations of about eight hours — just barely enough to finish a typical collection route.

Given solid waste trucks due to wear and tear from constant stopping and powered improvements such as grabbing and tipping carts and roll-out bins have  a typical seven-year useful life before maintenance costs became a major financial drain, the $110,000 difference is significant.

That means a city with a fleet of 30 plus solid waste trucks such as Manteca will have when it fully complies to a 2025 state mandate to divert more organic waste from  being landfilled, will save $3.3 million over the course of seven years compared to going electric.

Those savings then would be extended into the next seven-year cycle.

It also will reduce the cost of adding future trucks to accommodate growth.

It also doesn’t require expensive charging infrastructure.

Manteca starting shifting its solid waste collection truck fleet to those that can be powered by compressed natural gas three years ago.

That’s when the biogas production started at the wastewater treatment plant.

Manteca was among the first cities west of the Rocky Mountains to get into biogas production.

The city is adding commercial food waste to the process on top of the methane gas.

The biogas has eliminated the need for the city to burn off methane gas into the atmosphere. Methane is a byproduct created when treating wastewater.

Methane gas is also one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gas.

That means Manteca is ahead of the curve especially when it comes to reducing wastewater sources of methane gas.

The City of Roseville just went online with its own biofuel production at their Pleasant Grove Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Just like Manteca they are taking food waste and methane to produce biogas fuel.

Roseville — with 151,000 residents — is expected to divert 12,000 tons of high-strength organic waste from being landfilled.

That will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 7,000 metric tons of CO2 annually — the equivalent of planting 270,000 trees each year.

The Manteca plant isn’t far behind given it serves 110,000 people — all of Manteca’s 90,000 residents plus just a half of Lathrop’s population.

Manteca, like Roseville, was able to tap into biogas as it is one of the few “full-service” cities in California. That means both cities provides their own water, sewer and garbage collection services as well as police and fire protection.

Rate increase would initially

raise bills to $47.41 a month

All residential customers — except those that qualify for low-income senior rates — could start getting $47.41 a month garbage bills later this year.

That’s the bottom financial line for  ratepayers in a study designed to get the solid waste division out of a financial hole, cover inflation costs of the past five years, and to implement expensive new state mandates for food waste and other recycling initiatives.

Depending upon the service you now have based on cart size your rate increase could be as much as 105 percent higher between now and 2027.

That’s because in order to increase operating efficiency and to avoid even higher rate increases, the proposal is to go to a universal cart size of 96 gallons.

Currently the small cart rate is $30.67 a month, the medium cart is $32.61 a month, and the large cart (95 gallons) is $34.33 a month.

The new rates also reflect weekly pickup of all three carts. Currently only the brown garbage cart is collected weekly with the other two carts — blue for recyclables and green for yard waste — tipped on alternating weeks.

The implementation plan splits the rate hike into five steps.

As originally presented the biggest jump will occur this year when all residential customers will go to 96 gallon carts. That will take the current $34.33 charge for a 96 gallon cart up $13.08 to $47.41 a month.

Then, based on what was previously outlined, in the next four years:
*On Jan. 1, 2024, the rate will go up $3.51 to $50.92.

*On Jan. 1, 2025, the rate will go up $3.76 to $54.68.

*On Jan. 1, 2026, the rate will go up $4.04 to $58.72.

*On Jan. 1, 2036, the rate will go up $4.35 to $63.07.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com