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From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com
Organization: American Cybercasting
Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com
Subject: Tank Farm Priorities=
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 92 07:35:20 EST
Message-ID: <30.1992Nov21.073520@AmeriCast.com>

Tank Farm Priorities=

 YOU'VE NO DOUBT heard about the Fairfax City petroleum tank farm
and its huge leak, estimated at 200,000 gallons and 18 acres in
size. Now, a commission named by Gov. L. Douglas Wilder says that
the tank farm should be moved to another location because it con-
stitutes an "unreasonable risk." But the commission did not sug-
gest how to do it and provided few details about the size of the
task.

  The tank farm supplies 40 percent of the Washington area's fuel
needs. What does that amount to? When the deep water tanker Exxon
Valdez ran aground, it dumped 11 million gallons of oil into the
sea. The same amount of product arrives at and is trucked away
from the Fairfax City facility every 3 1/2 days. In 1991 the tank
farm received 100 times that amount - more than 1.1 billion gal-
lons of petroleum.  Although some of the gasoline, heating oil
and kerosene arrive via a 32-inch underground pipe, most supplies
are delivered by truck - 350 to 400 tanker trucks a day. That's a
conservative estimate based on full loads for 8,500-gallon
trucks. Smaller trucks are also used, and some large tankers do
not carry full loads. This facility also supplies jet fuel
directly to Dulles International Airport. We'd like to see the
community that is ready and willing to accept such a thing near-
by.

 All this also presupposes a willingness to move on the part of
the Fairfax terminal oil companies (they don't want to) or a suc-
cessful coercion of the same (no state or local law on the books
can force them out). To condemn the facility, the state would
have to buy it at full market value, and that is not an option at
the moment.  Even if the terminal is moved to another location
sometime down the line, it is necessary first to address the sur-
rounding community's most pressing problems. Cleanup efforts to
date have been pathetic - just 371 of the 200,000 spilled gallons
retrieved in one six-week period. Federal oversight and pressure
have amounted to a slap on the wrist - one $205,000 fine for al-
lowing a little contaminated water to flow into a stream. Star
Enterprises, which has taken responsibility for cleaning up the
spill, resumed its tank farm operations before an audit and
search for leaks were even completed. State and local elected of-
ficials would do well to deal with these situations first.<02:21
11-21C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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