Midway City Sanitary District (MCSD) celebrated the opening of its new compressed natural gas (CNG) station this summer. Thanks, in part, to receiving $250,000 in Clean Transportation Funding from the MSRC for the new station and maintenance facility modifications, MCSD was able to offset the construction cost of about $3 million for the new 15 time-fill dispensers and two fast-fill dispensers without putting a financial strain on its resources. The MCSD Board of Directors, elected officials and their representatives, District staff and community members were all on-hand for the grand opening and station tour in August.
MCSD was established in 1939 and provides curbside solid waste collection and recycling services for nearly 20,000 residences within its service area of Westminster and the unincorporated Midway City on a weekly basis. It is the only municipal agency in Orange County that has not contracted out residential waste collection services to a private company.
Not only was the District debt-free at the completion of the project, the new CNG station will enable MCSD to see additional savings in the future. The station and fleet of 10 CNG vehicles will help the District save about $400,000 per year in fuel and operations costs. The estimated return on investment is just over six years. According to the District, these savings will enable them to not raise fees on its customers for many years to come.
The CNG vehicles bring additional benefits to residents - quieter vehicles traveling through their neighborhoods and cleaner air. Natural gas vehicles produce 21 to 26 percent lower GHG emissions than diesel vehicles. Additionally, particulate matter emissions are greatly reduced by the use of CNG.
Federal and state regulations require fleets like MCSD to convert to CNG by 2020. However, the MSRC’s funding helped the District make this transition five years ahead of schedule. Moreover, the District is so excited about its new CNG station and the additional fueling capabilities it provides, that it is hoping to add five more vehicles to its fleet in the near future.