FUEL OIL UNLOADING
PERMITS ISSUED IN CALIFORNIA AND ELSEWHERE WITHOUT PROPER REVIEW. LAX OVERSIGHT AND
LUCK OF PROPER ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW COULD HAVE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES.
Many
of the oil-related spills and/or disasters have happened during transfer
operations. It is almost a crime to fail
to perform proper environmental review of oil transfer operations.
Sacramento crude
oil transfers halted; air quality official says permit was granted in error
A
tanker truck is filled from railway cars containing crude oil on railroad
tracks in McClellan Park in North Highlands in March. Randall Benton
rbenton@sacbee.com
A
Sacramento fuel distributor has agreed to stop unloading train shipments of
crude oil at McClellan Business Park after the county’s top air quality
official said his agency mistakenly skirted the state’s environmental rules by
issuing a permit for the operation.
InterState
Oil Co. said in a letter Wednesday to the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality
District that as of Nov. 7 it will no longer use McClellan as a transfer
station for crude oil shipments to the Bay Area.
The
move settles a lawsuit filed in September by EarthJustice, a San
Francisco-based environmental group, that contended the Sacramento air quality
district should not have granted InterState Oil a permit to transfer crude oil
from trains to tanker trucks bound for Bay Area oil refineries without a full
environmental impact review.
Air
district head Larry Greene now says a full review was, in fact, required by the
California Environmental Quality Act.
“We made an error when the permit was
developed, and it should have gone to full CEQA review,” Greene said Wednesday.
“We have notified (InterState) and the environmental group to that effect.
InterState is voluntarily giving that permit back.”
Greene
said InterState will continue other transfer operations at its McClellan site,
including transfers of ethanol.
It
is unclear whether the company will apply for a new permit to load crude oil.
Its representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
A
lawyer for EarthJustice called this a major victory in the group’s fight
against potentially unsafe oil shipments.
“It
signals that industry and government may not benefit from a lack of
transparency and play dice with lives of people who live along the paths of
these dangerous oil trains,” attorney Suma Peesapati said. “This is the first
crude transfer project that has been stopped dead in its tracks in California.”
The
reversal by the Sacramento air quality district could bolster efforts by
environmental groups to slow or stop crude oil projects on rail lines
elsewhere, particularly in Washington state. A proposed terminal in Vancouver,
Wash., would transfer oil from trains to tanker ships that could supply
California refineries.
Patti
Goldman, a managing attorney in the Seattle office of EarthJustice, said the
decision sounded “a wake-up call” for permitting authorities to consider
community input.
“We
have been seeing local authorities blindly approve crude-by-rail projects
without being open with the public and without considering the full effects,”
she said.
The
McClellan operation is relatively small compared with the kind of crude oil
train terminals now proposed elsewhere in California. One, in southwestern Kern
County in the southern Central Valley, will be able to receive one 100-car
train full of crude oil each day; the McClellan facility was permitted to
unload a similar amount once every two weeks.
The
Kern facility, which could begin operating this month, was already zoned for
transfer operations, and required no new environmental reviews or public
comments.
In
September, the Kern County Board of Supervisors approved a separate facility at
a Bakersfield refinery that could receive two trains a day. EarthJustice sued
the board earlier this month, contending that Kern’s environmental review was
inadequate.
Environmental
groups lost a legal fight in the Bay Area city of Richmond, where a terminal
operated by pipeline company Kinder Morgan unloads crude oil from trains to
trucks that take it to local refineries. A judge rejected the lawsuit in
September, ruling that the six-month statute of limitations had expired. That
project involves 100-car oil trains that come through midtown Sacramento.
Another
proposed oil-train terminal at the Phillips 66 refinery in Santa Maria could
mean even more of the cargo passing through Sacramento.
A
Sacramento Bee story in March revealed the existence of the McClellan operation
to a number of surprised local officials, including the head of the county
Office of Emergency Management and the chiefs of the Sacramento city and
Metropolitan fire departments. It noted that InterState began handling crude
oil last year without obtaining a permit.
Some
of the crude unloaded at McClellan may have originated in North Dakota’s Bakken
region. That type of oil, extracted through hydraulic fracturing, has been
under increased scrutiny since a July 2013 derailment killed 47 people in
Lac-Megantic, Quebec.
That
accident and a series of fiery derailments since then have prompted the rail
industry and its federal regulators to take steps to improve track conditions
and operating practices. A stronger construction standard for tank cars used to
ship flammable liquids is being finalized by the U.S. Department of
Transportation.
The
California Energy Commission projects that the state could receive more than
20percent of its petroleum supply by rail in the next two years. State
emergency officials and fire departments have said they don’t feel they are
prepared to handle a major explosion from a derailment.
Earlier
this month, BNSF Railway and Union Pacific sued California over a state law
that requires railroads to develop oil spill prevention and response plans. The
railroads argue that only the federal government has the power to regulate
them.
INFO FROM INTERSTATE
Terminaling
InterState
McClellan Terminal is conveniently located at McClellan Park in Sacramento, CA,
just off I-80 near Watt Avenue. It is centrally located in the capitol city,
yet close to the bay area.
Our
strategic location allows us to offer extensive fuel supply for all Northern
California and Nevada terminals. With over 40,000 bbls of storage capacity, we
help ensure that our customers have fuel during local supply disruptions and
shortages. You can be rest-assured that a supply disruption will not affect our
ability to deliver your fuel in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Transloading
The
InterState McCellan Terminal transloading facility handles diesel, biodiesel,
ethanol, and various bulk liquid products. Rail-to-truck transloading is accomplished
using our proprietary high-speed automated loading system.
Our
immaculate safety rating, attention to detail, and streamlined operating
procedures are key reasons to consider allowing us to handle your bulk
transloading needs.