Basin Disposal Converts Collection Trucks to Natural Gas Power

It's a revolutionary step for a major company, and could have significant positive impact on our economy.

The official ribbon cutting event will take place Friday at Basin Disposal's headquarters on Commercial Avenue in Pasco, but it's a project that's been years in the making.

Basin Disposal essentially began decades ago as a "family" start-up waste collection and disposal business.  Now, it's charged with collecting and safely treating and storing garbage and waste materials from all over Pasco, Franklin County and other areas.

BDI has teamed with Cascade Natural Gas to convert it's fleet of collection trucks to run on compressed natural gas.   Natural gas vehicles have been around for years, the technology is not considered new.   But recent developments have made it much more cost effective to power larger vehicles with the fuel.

You may have read or heard of numerous discoveries of enormous desposits of natural gas across America.   Because it's largely a North American-U.S.  supply and industry, it's not affected as much by world events or markets, like the oil industry is affected in the Middle East, Venezuela etc.  Natural gas prices have been lower than diesel or oil, and have stayed (and will probably stay) stable and affordable.

BDI began the investment a number of years ago, and it's culminated in a multi-station natural gas fueling facility in Pasco.     In a few years, BDI hopes to have converted it's entire fleet to natural gas, and there's a very good chance the technology will spread to other Mid-Columbia businesses. Those would include delivery businesses and other fleet companies.

Due to environmental restrictions, oil prices and petroleum industry instability,  natural gas has become a significantly cheaper alternative to diesel powered vehicles in certain applications, including local and regional delivery, and garbage collection.

BDI is already seeing cost savings from natural gas trucks, and the forecast is for costs to continue to pay off in savings for consumers in the coming years.