Street Sale To Used-Oil Company Advances

A used-oil recycling company won a key aldermanic sign-off for its plans to purchase a city street for $100,000 and employ more trains, and fewer trucks, to transport its goods to Canada.

That recommended approval came this past Thursday night at the latest Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee hearing in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

The committee alders voted unanimously in support of the city’s plans to discontinue a roughly 54,000 square-feet stretch of Waterfront Street north of Forbes Avenue in the Annex and sell it to the used oil recycling company Safety-Kleen in exchange for $100,000, to be paid into a Restricted Coastal Management Fund for the city’s benefit.

Local attorney Hugh Manke and Safety-Kleen Vice President of Real Estate Bryan Girts, joined by a half-dozen Safety-Kleen engineers and local site staffers, explained that Clean Harbors, a Massachusetts-based waste disposal company of which Safety-Kleen is a subsidiary, already owns the land on either side of the portion of Watefront Street in question.

Since 2001, they said, Safety-Kleen has used its New Haven site at 120 Forbes Ave. to store used oil that is then taken by barge or by train to various re-refineries the company owns throughout North America

Because existing train tracks adjacent to their current Annex property come near, but not exactly onto, the existing Safety-Kleen site, Girts said, the company has to truck its used oil from New Haven to a railroad yard in North Haven multiple times a week in order to transport the material by train to a re-refinery it owns in Breslau, Ontario.

Acquiring access to the currently city-owned stretch of Waterfront Street, Girts explained, would allow the company to extend existing rail tracks directly onto Safety-Kleen-owned property, thereby allowing it to load used oil directly into rail cars and eliminate up to 700 truck trips per year. The company currently handles much of its used motor oil storage business out of Bridgeport, he said, and is hoping to consolidate those operations in New Haven and bring to town roughly 20 new jobs.

Girts said that New Haven’s Safety-Kleen site does not, and will not, process or refine used oil. ​“That’s just a place to collect it, hold it it, until it’s ready to go a final user,” which is often the re-refinery in Breslau.

Girts, Manke, and local Safety-Kleen Operating Manager Richard Domschine said that the company is heavily regulated by local, state, and federal environmental authorities, and that it has never had a spill or a violation in its many years working in New Haven.

Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter pointed out that, per Safety-Kleen’s current application before the City Plan Commission, the company plans to increase the total number of gallons of used oil it stores and distributes from New Haven each year from 3.3 million to 8.4 million.

“What are the risks and at what point in the process should we be worried about a spill?” Winter asked.

By transitioning from truck to rail, Domschine said, ​“We’re actually lessening the chance of a spill.” That’s because fewer truck trips will have to be made in and out of the Annex every day. A rail car, he said, can accommodate between four and five times more used oil than a typical truck.

“We have a lot of brownfield sites” in New Haven, Winter continued. In the hopefully not-too-distant future when the world relies less on burning fossil fuels, he said, what are the company’s plans for this site? Is there money set aside for cleanup?

So far, Domschine said, Clean Harbors has spent around $200,000 removing roughly 1,400 tons of contaminated soil from the site. He said the company is also scheduled to clean up the rest of the site of past contaminants over the next four years. ​“This will actually end up being a greener site tomorrow than it was a year ago,” he said.

How did the city and Safety-Kleen reach $100,000 as the proposed purchase price for this street? East Rock Alder Anna Festa asked.

The company hired an appraiser who found the property to be worth $60,000, Manke said. ​“The city strongarmed us and we settled on $100,000.”

Judi Sheiffele, the executive director of the city’s port authority, testified in support of the proposed street sale. Not only would the deal and proposed expansion provide direct rail access for a company currently reliant on trucks, she said, but the deal would also grant the port authority direct access to the water through an unobstructed easement. ​“We are in full support of Safety-Kleen not only doing improvements on their existing parcel, but also being able to use Waterfront Street for supportive use.”

Before the committee alders took their unanimous vote, nearly everyone spoke up in favor of the deal, which they said appears to be an environmental plus based on the expected reduced truck traffic, let alone a boost to the city’s grant list.

Westville Alder Adam Marchand noted that the stretch of Waterfront Street in questions is in the middle of an active, industrial port. This continued industrial use is likely the highest and best use, he said, versus some other recreational or residential project that would have to be squeezed in the midst of existing oil tanks.

The proposed street discontinuance and sale now proceeds to the full Board of Alders for two hearings and a final vote. Safety-Kleen’s proposal to build seven new vertical tanks at its current Forbes Avenue site and increase its expected volume of oil used oil storage and transfer every year is currently before the City Plan Commission.