Cascade Natural Gas is providing infrastructure and natural gas to a compressed natural gas fueling station that opened in Pasco, Wash. The fueling station is owned by Commercial Fueling LLC and will provide service to Basin Disposal, which plans to convert its fleet of garbage trucks from diesel to natural gas. Not only will Basin Disposal save money on fuel, but the conversion to natural gas will reduce emissions from its truck fleet by half, according to the utility.

Numerous state and local dignitaries attended a ribbon-cutting event held at the site in July.

Cascade personnel invested considerable time in designing and installing infrastructure to serve the fueling station, the first private compressed natural gas station in Cascade’s service territory. The fueling station also will be open to customers from Pasco and West Richland, as well as trucks passing through the area.

Basin Disposal has committed to putting four new garbage trucks into service each January for the next four years, in addition to the initial four trucks that will run on CNG this year.

“While this isn’t a large-consumption customer, we are excited about connecting a customer whose consumption is not weather dependent, such as home heating,” said John Cooley, manager of industrial services at Cascade. “Customers like Basin can provide Cascade with a consistent revenue stream year-round.”