STPUD in the market for new vehicle
South Tahoe PUD’s hydorvac truck is nearly 20 years old. Photo/LTN
South Tahoe Public Utility District has a vehicle that is so old the state Air Resources Board says its days are numbered for being able to legally be on the streets.
It has been around since 1997. By 2017 is has to be pulled from service because the parts to upgrade it to state standards cannot be found.
A business in another state, like Nevada with its less stringent air regulations, is where a buyer for this apparatus will likely be found. Brand new it cost $174,000. Today the price tag is $330,000.
“Wherever this goes, it never turns off,” explained Randy Curtis of STPUD. That only exacerbates the air quality issue.
He gave the district board a demonstration earlier this month about how the hyrodvac truck works.
“If we do have a spill, this is what we use to clean it up with,” Curtis said.
Another use is excavation work on streets. It can clean out a 4-foot-by-4-foot area down 6 feet without impacting other infrastructure below ground. It can clean up to a 24-inch line.
It sucks all the material out so crews can get the water or sewer line. The material it collects is then deposited at the district’s South Lake Tahoe headquarters in what is called the “bone yard.”
The board has yet to approve the expenditure of funds on a new piece of equipment.
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Notes:
• The South Tahoe Public Utility District board of directors will have a public hearing on the budget May 7 from 6-7:30pm in the district board room, 1275 Meadow Crest Drive, South Lake Tahoe.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
So the utility has to fix a problem that the State created arbitrarily. Typical. Not a doggoned thing wrong with the vehicle, newer than MY car, but it’s too old by government standards.
$330K for a new one? Just chump change. Raise our rates again.
The government made these rules concerning air quality because people didn’t keep their cars tuned up and therefore create air pollution. The state most certainly did not create CARB arbitrarily, air pollution is a major problem in our state. I read your posts and you seem to think you pay too much for taxes, which is fine. However you can only cut back so much before services are affected, and maintenance is neglected. You fail to recognize that inflation and aging equipment does need to be replaced, which is evident in your car. Most people know they have a responsibility to our environment and yes it costs money. Is it arbitrary? No.
California always wants to lead the rest of the country with its strict regulations on how we all live. The people who are making those rules do not give a rat’s patootie how that affects the working people of the state. Elites making rules because THEY are, for the most part, unaffected by them. Many state employees don’t even need to own their own cars or pay for their own gas! WE DO.
And yeah, we pay to maintain our own cars so that we don’t have to buy new ones. WE just buy new ones for everybody else.
California leads the way because of the the pollution in the LA basin, Imperial valley, Bay Area, and central valley in the ’60’s and 70’s. The people making those rules absolutely DO CARE about working people of the state, otherwise you’d be breathing dirtier air. Yes they are affected by the rules they make, they live in those areas and pay for less polluting cars and trucks. Many state employees do get to use a state vehicle, but not most. Just because you drive an old car doesn’t mean most people do.
Aren’t there are contractors who can be hired to do this without STPUD having to own the truck?
Just retrofit and rebuild the darn thing for $50,000.
I’ve seen this truck around town, in my hood, it looks just fine body wise. If it’s a new cleaner output engine, then swap it out, same things goes for the other parts, you have mechanic’s over there, put them to work Solbrig!
I agree totally with LOCAL….
If this was a private business it would find an alternative to shelling out $$$$$$ for a new truck. They would look to retrofit it with an engine of some type and pass the rules.
I am totally in favor of the rules since we have seen the benefit in cleaner air we all breath. The tax payer is not a bottomless well as most politicians act like…the patience is running thin but as long we have a State totally controlled by one party we have zero chance to get sanity in their spending habits. The high speed rail system is one….
$330,000 for a sucking truck. Come on man.
Rate increase…..
Clean Harbors is a private contractor that has one of those trucks. See them all the time here in the Stateline area. I’ll bet ya that they can provide the same service for the city at a much lower costs than our local government is providing it for.
Someone can’t add. the picture say’s the truck is a 1977. In my way of adding it sounds like 38 years.
Flatlander is right, rebuild the engine, under $ 50K.
I agree. Retrofit and move on. To replace the whole vehicle, not only the “truck” is replaced, but the contraption attached to it. That’s where the REAL money is. The bare truck chassis itself costs perhaps $50~60K, but the add-ons is where the real money is.
Oldtimer, get your eyes checked. Caption says truck is nearly 20 years old; story says it is a 1997.
Will the new trucks pump be powered by solar panels and have team of unicorn pull it from site to site?
Laughing,
you are right, I’ didn’t read that very well,my mistake, Sorry.
They should still retrofit it.
How much of what dawg accused other people of is true or based on reality?
Lots of assumptions going on here.
Wut? Prunes? Nothing better to do today than attack, as usual, only this time, you’ve got nothing to attack? Like a hallucinating killer chihuahua you are!
Dog rant. YAWN
Grow up, Bats.
Oh doggie, sorry, not listening…how about you stop pointing fingers and ill”grow up”?