FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: This landfill in Fargo, North Dakota was once a stinky reminder of waste. But city officials recognized a gift in all that garbage.</s>BRUCE GRUBB, FARGO ENTERPRISE DIRECTOR: We've got resources here available to us that formerly weren't utilized at all. For example the methane gas was escaping into the atmosphere.</s>WHITFIELD: Now the methane gas that once raised a stink generates cash for the city.</s>MIKE WILLIAMS, FARGO CITY COMMISSIONER: If you can smell it we can sell it. That which used to just be right under our nose turned into cash and new energies.</s>WHITFIELD: Last year alone the city generated almost $2 million from renewable energy and conservation initiatives with the help of local industry partnerships.</s>JAYSEN SCHOCK, CARGILL FACILITY SUPERINTENDANT: Today the methane is about 30 percent of the fuel needs we need to operate our plant.</s>WHITFIELD: But trash is not the only treasure here in Fargo. Last year Fargo brought in nearly $1 million by selling waste water to a nearby ethanol plant. The water is treated and used in the production process instead of being dumped in the Red River. Innovations like biodiesel buses and LED traffic lights have residents seeing and saving green.</s>WILLIAMS: We didn't have to raise our property taxes this last year. That's an example of how taxpayers benefit by conservation efforts and making better use of resources.</s>WHITFIELD: Fredricka Whitfield, CNN.
City of Fargo Uses Waste to Generate Energy