PANAMA CITY — The possibility of an explosion with schoolchildren nearby was the primary worry of a group of Glenwood leaders who spoke recently against the city’s proposed natural gas station at Redwood Avenue and 11th Street.
Eight Glenwood leaders spoke at the Dec. 16 Panama City Commission meeting. Led by William Swift, the main points of contention were that it would cost too much to prepare the site, which was formerly a landfill, and that the possibility of an explosion and an increase in traffic creates a danger to Oscar Patterson Elementary and C.C. Washington Academy off 11th Street.
City Public Works Director Neil Fravel said these new concerns might push back the plan for the station by several months, if not longer. Public Works plans to study different sites and determine if there is another suitable location.
“They’re concerned about the safety of the station,” Fravel said.
However, he hopes to meet with those leaders early this year to ease their concerns.
Fravel hoped to bring a plan for the site to the commission in February, with a maximum cost of $1.8 million. The station could then be finished by August or September and serve the city’s sanitation vehicles.
Fravel has asked the sanitation department to wait to purchase new natural gas-powered vehicles. The department has $938,333 budgeted for machinery and equipment in 2015.
Fravel says a natural gas station, if installed according to the specifications of consultant Ziet Energy, is no more dangerous than a petroleum gas station, with the odds of an explosion very small. Ziet Energy’s requirements include clearance of at least 18 feet, methane detectors, modified heating and cooling systems and a modified electrical system.
Even if there were an accident at the site, the closest home is a full football field away and the closest school is across two city streets.
The area is zoned for industrial use, and thus a natural gas station would be within the allowed uses for the area.
The city’s interest in the site stems from convenience. It is close to a natural gas line that runs along 15th Street, already used by asphalt company Anderson Columbia, also located on Redwood Avenue. The site also is centrally located, easy for city vehicles and potentially other customers to use.
Other than money saved on diesel fuel, the plan is to have the station pay for itself by selling natural gas to other users. A potential user might be the schools with buses that run on natural gas. Fravel said there are not many public customers yet.
“It’s like ‘Field of Dreams;’ if you build, it they will come,” he said.
The cost savings in fuel and maintenance should be immediate. The solid waste department budgeted $500,000 for the 2014-15 budget just for fuel. The savings during a 20-year period could be as much as $2.9 million, Ziet Energy reported in a feasibility study.
Fravel attributes rising maintenance costs to systems designed to make the vehicles burn fuel cleaner.
“Those systems are expensive,” Fravel said. “A lot of places send their vehicles out of town for maintenance.”
The vehicles also have fail-safes, which force drivers to pull over if the vehicle has been running for significant amounts of time. Those systems won’t be necessary because natural gas burns much cleaner than diesel.
“I think this will be good for the city in the long term,” Fravel said.