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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune March 13. 2015 11:22AM Rogue Disposal plans natural gas fueling site WHITE CITY — Rogue Disposal & Recycling's migration to compressed natural gas-fueled refuse trucks began several years ago. Until now, Rogue Disposal trucks have fueled up at Rogue Valley Transportation District's CNG site off of Crater Lake Highway. If all goes as planned,  Rogue Disposal and other entities will begin fueling at a new station on Antelope Road in mid-2016. Air quality advocates will gather to kick off the project at 10 a.m. Monday at Rogue Disposal's transfer station at 8001 Table Rock Road. Site work will begin in June for the roughly $3 million project with construction to follow later in the year, said Lee Fortier, general manager of Rogue Disposal's Dry Creek Landfill. The CNG station will be situated on 2.5 acres fronting Antelope Road near Seventh Street, adjacent to state-owned land where an Avista natural gas line runs. Rogue Disposal will tap into Avista's pipeline and run the gas through a compressor to raise the pressure for high-speed fueling. Rogue Disposal has six CNG-fueled trucks and will continue converting its fleet from diesel-powered trucks. "RVTD has a relatively constrained site," Fortier said. "They aren't set up for large fleets in addition to their own buses. We were seeking ways to put a station together for our fleets and others that will convert to CNG." Shadow Properties, a sister company of Rogue Disposal, acquired the property for $1.88 million in December 2012. "This is a very logical location because it's right down the street from ODOT and Jackson County's fleets, and it's in close proximity to our transfer station on Table Rock," Fortier said. Although early use will be primarily for fleets with cardlock access, he said ultimately the station will get wider use as more people acquire CNG-fueled vehicles. "The ultimate goal is to open it to the public for credit card transactions," Fortier said. "But I would guess that's five years down the road. We have to learn to walk before we run. It won't be very busy in the early days, but we anticipate more over time because a lack of CNG fueling sites." RVTD executive director Julie Brown said the project has multiple benefits "It gives us a second fast-fueling place," Brown said. "The only other place was the county motor pool." Last year, RVTD's natural gas burning buses traveled 642,877 miles and would have consumed 139,756 gallons of diesel. The CNG buses typically take about 10 minutes to fill. "We try to keep them topped off, but sometimes they get pretty low if they've been out all day," Brown said. "Before we got our new facility in 2013, we couldn't even fill our tanks to capacity because there wasn't enough pressure." Brown said the Antelope Road station will provide a north-valley and mid-valley fueling location, but she hopes to see another facility before long. "Eventually we'd like to see another one in Ashland," Brown said. "If you had a car and the only gas stations were in White City and RVTD, it would be a long trip from Ashland. We had one commercial vendor coming here for CNG fueling. That meant driving all the way here to fuel up, and it got to the point where it wasn't worth it." Brown said a handful of private vehicles fuel up along with commercial and agency fleets. "The next-closest CNG facility is in Eugene," she said. "And the next-closest to there is Portland."   Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or  [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter at  www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness , on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31 , and read his blog at  www.mailtribune.com/ Economic Edge .   http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20150313/NEWS/150319785 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->