Sanitation Dept. Unveils Hybrid Garbage Trucks

Sanitation Dept. Unveils Hybrid Garbage Trucks

Two years ago, the city’s Sanitation Department issued a challenge to the industry: develop a hybrid garbage truck.

“No one, until we asked, had entertained the thought of putting together a hybrid heavy-duty garbage collection truck,” said Vito A. Turso, a department spokesman.

This week, the department announced that it would begin using the first of three such trucks, among the first in the country, in western Queens in September.

The vehicles — one from Mack Trucks and two from the Crane Carrier Company — are expected to use 30 percent less fuel than the current trucks. The new ones look like the regular trucks but are slightly longer. They also advertise their environmentally friendly nature with green panels along the side. (Perhaps they could have taken a lesson in garbage truck art from Yonkers.) Four more trucks from Crane are also on order, for a total of seven.

The city’s 2,200 large garbage trucks haul more than 11,000 tons a day. “The problem, of course, is heavy-duty vehicles use a lot of gas,” Mr. Turso said. The department thought there was “an enormous opportunity to convert what is usually considered emissions-heavy collection trucks into something like these hybrids which reduce emissions dramatically.”

The trucks use two distinct types of technology. The Mack truck uses hybrid electric technology akin to the system in the Toyota Prius, in which the energy from braking is stored in batteries. The two from the Crane Carrier Corporation use hybrid hydraulic technology, which stores energy in a cylinder of compressed gas instead of in a battery.

Conventional garbage trucks cost $250,000 each, but these hybrids cost about $500,000 each, since they are early models. However, federal subsidies encouraging hybrid vehicles are to cover $250,000 of the cost.

Other cities are watching New York City’s hybrid garbage trucks. “If these things go into mass production, the price becomes a lot less,” Mr. Turso said.

Senators tour US park, hear about global warming

Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado toured Rocky Mountain National Park Monday then heard testimony from parks officials and scientists about how global warming is harming the park system.

Glacier National Park, for example, is losing its glaciers, while low-lying coastal parkland is in danger of going underwater.

On Monday's tour, the senators were shown dying pine trees infected by beetles spreading as temperatures warm in the Rocky Mountains.

Herbert Frost, associate director for natural resource stewardship and science for the National Park Service, said climate change could be the most "far-reaching and consequential challenge in our history."

Both senators said confronting climate change is paramount.

"A common misperception is that this is a crisis that is down the road," McCain said. "Climate change is real. It's happening now."

However, there was no discussion at the hearing on what should be done to address climate change.

When the Senate resumes work next month, members will consider a bill that would set limits for the first time on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming. The bill narrowly passed the House in June.

McCain said the climate change bill would take a back seat to an even more heated debate on health care overhauls.

"First we'll deal with health care," he said.

Udall didn't say whether he supports the bill, either, making only an oblique reference to the climate debate in Congress.

"It's encouraging that we finally have an administration in Washington, D.C., that is taking this issue seriously," he said.

Last week the two senators toured the Grand Canyon to see the effects of climate change.

Grasshopper infestation raises toxic beetle worry

San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press, August 25, 2009, By MATT JOYCE
(08-25) 00:06 PDT Cheyenne, Wyo. (AP) --An outbreak of grasshoppers this summer could be behind recent detections in Wyoming of a toxic beetle that can be deadly if eaten by horses, according to agriculture officials.

Ranchers in two Wyoming counties have reported blister beetles this summer, although neither has reported any livestock poisonings, said Scott Schell, assistant extension entomologist with the University of Wyoming.

Still, the pests' presence is worrisome. Horses that eat blister beetles can become severely ill or die from gastrointestinal, heart or kidney trouble. The first signs of blister beetle sickness are acute colic, diarrhea and excessive salivation.

Blister beetle outbreaks often follow significant grasshopper infestations because the beetle larva eat grasshopper eggs, said state veterinarian Jim Logan.

Cattle and sheep can also be sickened, but not usually to the same degree as horses.

"Not every case is going to cause death in the horse," Logan said. "It depends on the species of the blister beetle, and how much is ingested by an individual horse. There are varying clinical signs that you'll see, and in some cases it does cause death."

Schell said the black blister beetle is the most common species of the beetle found in Wyoming. It has a relatively low toxicity: Studies have found it takes 1,700 black blister beetles to kill an 825-pound horse, he said.

"It probably occurs in low numbers most every year, but this year it's getting more attention," Schell said last week. "The numbers will probably pick up next year actually because its larva live on grasshopper egg pods, so there's going to be a lot of larva habitat after this year."

Slade Franklin, weed and pest coordinator for the state Department of Agriculture, said he sent pictures of blister beetles to the state's 23 weed and pest districts in response to a case in Fremont County, in central Wyoming. He said he hasn't fielded any other reports about them.

Grasshopper outbreaks tend to be cyclical and are influenced by climate and insect population dynamics, said Bruce Shambaugh, state plant health director for the Plant Protection Quarantine division of the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Wyoming has experienced outbreaks of pest grasshopper species this summer in counties that traditionally have grasshopper problems, he said. Those include eastern and northeastern counties, the Big Horn Basin and Fremont County.

Franklin said grasshoppers are an important food source for birds, but an overabundance of the insects can be problematic because they feed on the same vegetation as livestock and other wildlife.

"We have a lot of vegetation this year. In some places, there's been enough vegetation" to keep grasshoppers, livestock and wildlife happy, he said.

That's not been the case for rancher David Kane. He said the grasshopper infestation on his ranch in north central Wyoming's Sheridan County is the worst since 1988. He downsized his herd last week because of the grasshoppers' effect on food supply.

"They're eating all our forage, and then to top all that off we had a major hailstorm come through and pounded a bunch of our rangeland as well, so we kind of got a double-whammy," Kane said.

When it comes to blister beetles, infestations normally occur in late summer and can contaminate green, cured or baled hay.

Logan, the state veterinarian, said cutting hay before it blooms helps decrease the likelihood of contamination, because beetles infect the hay primarily when it's in bloom.

If the hay already has bloomed, Logan recommends farmers remove the conditioner from windrowers — mowers used to cut hay — so it doesn't crush the hay stems and the beetles. Then the beetles will leave once the hay is down.

The Wyoming Livestock Board recommends seeking immediate veterinary care if blister beetle poisoning is suspected.

Directory: cpi -> briefs
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news
briefs -> The environment in the news

Download 198.86 Kb.

Share with your friends: