FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP): The city of Fort Wayne tried using methane gas to power its wastewater treatment plant and ended up saving $42,000 on its electric costs.
Doug Fasick works with Fort Wayne utilities. He says the plant started using the gas created from the sewage treatment process on Oct. 22. The Journal Gazette reports that electric bills dropped from about $110,000 to $68,000. Methane supplements about 32 percent of the plant's energy needs. The city's goal is to use gas to power most if not all plant operations.
The city started trying to reduce the amount of methane gas it released in 2013 as part of a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The city realized during that process that it could use the gas to power certain plant operations.
