Mieke Kramer drives miles away from her South Pasadena home to fill up her Honda with compressed natural gas (or CNG). But, as the city prepares to open up its CNG station to the public, Kramer's days of filling up natural gas in El Segundo, Burbank, Pasadena, Santa Monica and Azusa are numbered. Soon, she'll be able to fill up her vehicle at a station in her own city instead.

"You do drive an extensive amount looking for a place to fill up," Kramer said.

South Pasadena plans to soon convert its newly opened natural gas pumping station into a public access fast fill station, giving eco-conscious motorists like Kramer an opportunity to fill up their own natural gas vehicles in town.

"CNG pollutes about 95 percent less than a Prius Hybrid," said City Council member Michael Cacciotti.

While compressed natural gas is more abundant and cleaner than regular gasoline, the benefits of driving a CNG vehicle go beyond its small carbon footprint; it's also a lot cheaper. 

According to Assistant Public Works Director Shin Furukawa, the city operates eight natural gas vehicles, used by schools and the community services and police departments. 

Kramer pays about $2.75 per gallon for compressed natural gas, and gets about 30 miles to the gallon.

South Pasadena already has a fleet of eight city-owned CNG vehicles, used by school officials, community services employees, and the police department. 

Currently, the slow fill station on Stoney Drive in Arroyo Park is a restricted use station for only city-owned natural gas vehicles. Through a measure approved last week, the City Council will receive $152,000 in a matching grant from the Air Quality Management District's Mobile Source Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) to fund part of the upgrade to fast fill. The city would have to put up the money for the other half of the cost.

"It's going to happen, we just need to determine where exactly the money is going to come from," Cacciotti said.

That question prompted some debate among the council at last week's meeting.

Council member Phillip Putnam said he was in favor of the move to fast fill, but was unwilling enter into the matching program with the MSRC before a definite funding source was determined.

Both Putnam and Cacciotti agreed that the city's renewable energy fund would be a logical source of funding for the project, however, Cacciotti was reluctant to commit those funds without a promise that the city would eventually replenish funds removed from the account.

However, Putnam said the city could afford no such promises, and cast the sole no vote against the measure.

"Without a funding source, this is just not a motion I can support," Putnam said.

Neighboring cities like Pasadena and Burbank operate fast fill CNG stations, where motorists can fill up their vehicles in a timely fashion.

Depending on how many vehicles are filling up at the station at a given time, it can take up to eight hours to fill a single natural gas vehicle's tank, the city's Assistant Public Works Director Shin Furukawa said. 

At a fast fill station, motorists can fill up vehicles in the same amount of time it takes to fill a regular gas tank, Cacciotti said. 

He said if the fast fill station was eventually opened to city residents and the public works departments of other cities, it could be become a money maker for South Pasadena.

"There's a market out there and it will be growing," Cacciotti said.

Kramer said her CNG Honda goes for the same sticker price as the standard model. Many of her friends would think about switching to natural gas vehicles if there was a fast fill station in South Pasadena, she said.

"One of the most important things for people who want to go green is that it has to be practical," she said. "A fast fill station in the city would make natural gas vehicles a lot more practical for people."

Buck