Thomas Breen photo
Safety-Kleen tank farm, plus two tanks (pictured in yellow below.)
Safety-Kleen
A used-oil company won city permission to build two new storage tanks — and therefore more than double the amount of used oil it can hold on site — at a riverfront tank farm it owns in the Annex.
The approval came after a discussion of the environmental impact of having 115 oil tanks, and counting, located in New Haven.
The used-oilcompany, Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc., earned that unanimous approval Wednesday night during the latest regular monthly meeting of the City Plan Commission, which was held online via Zoom.
The commissioners unanimously signed off on Safety-Kleen’s site plan, coastal site plan, and special permit request to construct two new storage tanks within the existing containment berm, storing approximately 3,470,000 gallons of used oil, at an existing used oil transfer station at 120 Forbes Ave.
Meriden-based engineer John Schmitz said that the two new tanks will each be 72 feet in diameter and 60 feet high, and will be located atop a predominantly stone and gravel surface within an existing containment berm on the same locations where tanks once stood in the past.
Milford-based attorney Sara Sharp explained that Safety-Kleen — which collects, recycles, and sells used motor oil—is looking to build these two new larger tanks because the company has recently seen an increase in demand for recycled oil.
“Traditionally, a lot of their customers have been garages and gas stations,” she said. “There’s been recent interest from larger corporations seeking to use Safety-Kleen to improve their sustainability portfolio by using recycled products.”
Zoom
Wednesday’s virtual City Plan Commission meeting.
Wednesday’s two-tank approval comes a year and a half after the City Plan Commission granted Safety-Kleen permission to build eight new smaller storage tanks within the site’s existing containment berm to increase their used-oil storage capacity from 2,609,740 gallons to 2,773,740 gallons.
These new approvals will allow the company to increase its total on-site storage volume to more than double its current amount — to approximately 6,418,740 in total.
The company’s application states that the project involves 0.96 acres of the 6.9 acre property. The installation of the two new tanks will disturb roughly 26,200 square feet of soil, with roughly 1,85 cubic yards of material slated to be removed from the site.
“The project provides for sound economic growth for the City and is consistent with the capability of the land and surrounding resources to support this use without adverse impact on coastal resources,” the company’s application narrative reads. “The development footprint of the project is
limited to areas that were previously developed/disturbed in order to conserve and protect a significant area of coastal resources located on the Property, and both new tanks will be located within the existing containment berm.”
Thomas Breen pre-pandemic photo
Safety-Kleen’s Rich Domschine (center)
The narrative reiterates that Safety-Kleen currently uses its New Haven site only as a collection terminal where used motor oil is “delivered, stored, and shipped to recycling facilities for further processing before being redistributed to end users. The proposed activity will increase Safety-Kleen’s collection capabilities at the Property and will allow for greater efficiencies and expansion of its recycling efforts.”
Sharp said that the addition of the two new tanks won’t have a significant traffic impact in the area because of the extended rail service onto the site that the city allowed Safety-Kleen to build out in late 2019 as part of the company’s purchase of a section of Waterfront Street.
As for the 2019 approvals to construct eight new storage tanks as well as a new loading dock, “We would have hoped that that would be completed by now,” she said. But Covid has delayed that work. “That is is still ongoing. We expect to finish the projected associated with the 2019 approval this June.”
Beyond An Oil-Based Economy?
Thomas Breen photo
Ozyck: Too many tanks in New Haven already.
Safety-Kleen
The 120 Forbes Ave. tank farm.
During the public hearing portion of the night, local environmental activist and Fair Haven Heights resident Chris Ozyck pushed the commissioners, and Safety-Kleen as a company, to consider a broader environmental and economic context.
“I wonder if anybody knows how many tanks there are in New Haven,” he said. “It’s 115, by my count. We have a lot of these tanks, and one of my overall concerns is, when we get past the oil economy, what will happen to these sites? Will these businesses go bankrupt and leave us with environmental messes to clean up?”
He also asked about potential flooding of the riverfront site, and about any current contamination of soil at the long-industrial location.
With regards to these tanks being in the flood plain, Schmitz replied, the existing containment berm “is specifically designed to contain leaks from a tank. It’s not a berm to keep floodwater off of the site. Mostly every tank farm that’s in the port area is similarly designed.”
He said that, in the event of a tank leak, the berm should keep any fluid from getting directly into the Quinnipiac River.
As for the soil, there are monitoring wells on the site. He said that where these two new tanks are going in is “basically just stone and clean earth that will be removed to an off-site location.” What’s there today is “basically the foundation of a former, old 120-foot diameter tank that was there previously.”
Safety-Kleen’s David Paquette said that there is indeed contamination by the location of the front tank.
“We have to excavate to the water table, a fairly large area, whether the tank was going in or not.” All contaminated soil, per state environmental regulations, has to be “hauled off and disposed of properly.”
“We’re in a heavily regulated business,” he said. “We recognize that. We follow through and meet or exceed the requirements that are bestowed on us.”
Schmitz added that, because of the state’s Transfer Act, any future contamination or cleanup “would be the sole responsibility of the owner. The city wouldn’t be on the hook to clean anything.”
Thomas Breen pre-pandemic photos
The two other members of the public to speak up on the matter both through their support behind Safety-Kleen’s expansion.
“I have personally discussed many issues about this site with [Safety-Kleen’s] Rich Domschine,” said city Environmental Advisory Council Chair Laura Cahn (pictured at right). “I respect him a lot. … I like the way it’s kept. I like the way everything always looks neat and tidy and in order.”
She encouraged the commissioners to seriously consider Ozyck’s longer-term concerns “in their due time and course.”
“I think this company is looking out for us and themselves, and I thank them for being good citizens and for being open and honest with us.”
Local attorney Ben Trachten (pictured) also urged the approval of the two new tanks.
As an “auto enthusiast,” he said, “I am now more aware of the enormous volume of motor oil that is recycled.”
Recycling oil is beneficial to drivers who can get credits against the cost of buying oil for their cars, he said. Plus it reduces the amount of new oil needed and produced.
“As more car owners become aware of these benefits, I imagine only more oil will need to be recycled locally,” he said.
“I think we should be focusing on recycling and not so much on 50 years from now, if and when we move away from an oil economy.”
Before the commission took its unanimous vote in support, Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand noted the relevance of Ozyck’s line of questioning as the city grapples with how its waterfront area should be used in the years and decades to come.
“The infrastructure needs will change as we shift from one energy economy to another,” he said. “That may not be the question that’s before us right now … But I do think it’s useful to have this moment of brief reflection on how we need to be looking ahead.”
Tanks on the Quinnipiac River on the south side of Forbes Ave.
Disappointing. New Haven has incredible potential to be a real waterfront town, but similar to Hartford and Middletown, access to the waterfront is cut off by environmentally destructive uses: highways, and in our case, oil storage. People naturally gravitate towards water, and even though New Haven has an entire harbor at its disposal, we have done just that - disposed of it. One side of it is taken up by a 10-lane highway, on the other side, an ugly array of oil cylinders. Imagine if our waterfront was dedicated to people instead? A waterfront esplanade bordered with a community containing businesses, housing, and entertainment venues. What happened to all the plans to develop the harbor area in this way?