Owners of compressed natural gas vehicles now have twice as many stations to fill up in DeKalb with the opening of two new alternative fueling stations this week.

County officials unveiled fueling stations Oct. 10 and Oct. 11 at the Seminole Road Landfill, 4203 Clevemont Road in Ellenwood, and at the American Fueling Systems station at 4420 Buford Highway.

Gas South partnered with American Fueling Systems and the county to open the state’s largest CNG station, with eight fueling bays at the Buford Highway site. Gas South provides gas for six of the state’s seven CNG fueling stations.

The Clevemont Road CNG station, which is owned by DeKalb, is the first in the nation to simultaneously create CNG from landfill gas, dispense it to consumers on-site, and pipe any excess back into the pipeline.

The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners last month approved a gasoline gallon equivalent price of $2.10 for private users, which is below the current market rate of $2.25 per GGE for CNG, and well below the current cost of diesel fuel.

DeKalb sanitation trucks are switching from diesel fuel to CNG. The 40 vehicles that have already been converted will use the two new stations. The Buford Highway station is located near the county sanitation’s North Transfer Facility.

Under current market conditions, DeKalb is forecasting fuel savings of $3 million over the next eight years.

“We are turning ‘Trash to Gas’ and ‘Gas to Cash,’ saving $3 million by using it in DeKalb County vehicles,” CEO Burrell Ellis said. “We have the capacity to process more landfill gas than any other county in Georgia, we are providing a fuel that is cleaner and less expensive than diesel or gasoline, and we are now leading the charge in providing access to green and clean energy in metropolitan Atlanta.”

The county’s goal is to eventually replace or adapt its entire fleet of 306 sanitation vehicles with natural gas vehicles.

Both locations were funded as part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus funds through the U.S. Department of Energy.