County’s First Compressed Natural Gas Station Gets OK

SWAINTON – The county’s first compressed natural gas fueling station will be operational at the Municipal Utility Authority Sanitary Landfill Complex, Woodbine, by December 2014. A resolution authorizing a 15-year lease agreement with Clean Energy Corporation was passed during the authority’s regular meeting Feb. 5.
According to the terms of the agreement, the authority will benefit from a $1,000 per month lease fee and a five-cent per Gasoline Gallon Equivalent royalty.
“If we ever start converting our trucks to compressed natural gas engines, which we plan on doing, they (Clean Energy Corporation) are also going to give us a 10 percent price reduction,” said Solid Waste Program Manager John Baron.
The authority could also expect a 50 percent credit on its vehicle fuel usage should the federal government continue the fuel tax credit on Gasoline Gallon Equivalent.
Natural gas is a clean fuel alternative that when used in natural gas vehicles, can increase energy security and lower emissions. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, there are 663 compressed natural gas fueling stations throughout the country. Seven are located in the state, including stations in Atlantic City and Millville.
Baron said Clean Energy Corporation is very experienced at building these types of stations. The company has constructed over 300 compressed natural gas stations throughout North America, with 79 stations constructed in the last year.
“It’s our hope that the station is very successful because if we get a royalty of five cents a gallon, the more they sell, the more we make, too,” said Baron.
Also discussed was $74,345 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for a study examining alternative solutions for the disposal of landfill leachate and wastewater in the borough of Woodbine.
Leachate is the liquid collected from landfill cells that contain waste. Landfills are required to prevent leachate from returning to the soil, as the leachate could contain contaminants and be considered hazardous.
The authority currently collects leachate by pumping it into two steel storage tanks which, after sampling, is either recirculated in accordance with the bioreactor/leachate recirculation system or transported by tanker trucks to the Seven Mile Beach/Middle Region Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The authority expects the amount of leachate transported to the wastewater treatment plant to increase over the next 30 years.
The USDA grant will help the authority identify a long-term solution for the treatment and disposal of landfill-generated leachate.
At the same time, the grant will also be used to identify a solution for the treatment and disposal of wastewater generated from Woodbine, as the borough currently lacks a centralized sewer system.
The feasibility study will review six improvement alternatives, including three that involve the construction of a pipeline from the Landfill to the connection points on the Avalon Boulevard force mains, and three that involve the construction of a pipeline from the Landfill to the Woodbine Airport Sewage Treatment Plant, which is currently inactive and would require significant improvements and upgrades. Hatch Mott MacDonald will oversee the project.
“That saves a lot of trucking if we can get this deal done,” said Chairman George Betts. “It would be nice to have that happen.”
Baron estimates the Landfill delivers at least 12 truck loads of leachate a day, 200 days a years, so the installation of a pipeline would be an environmentally-friendly alternative.
To contact Kirby Reed, email kreed@cmcherald.com.