(Delaware City Refinery, image unknown)
Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board
9:00 a.m. Monday, February 27th
Kent County Administration Building
555 S. Bay Road, Dover, De 19901
From CLNCC past President (1999-2001) Michael McDowell: Important: Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board Appeal Meeting
Pursuant to Section 7007, Title 7 of the code, the board will hold a public hearing on the appeal , challenging the DNREC issuance of Secretary's order 2016 - CZ- 0050 dated December 27, 2016. Public encouraged to attend. Any one attending can make a statement or comment and it will go into the record. Remember - if any permit is issued for either export or import , there must be set asides equal to or greater, there must be insurance against any malfunction due to mechanical or human error in a value to cover any accident and cover any cost of pollution whether its by any transport including rail, pipeline, ship to shore, shore to ship, import or export, which are different activities.
Meeting date, time, and location: February 27th, 2017 , at 9:00 am, at Kent County Administration Building, 555 S. Bay Road, Dover, De 19901
In December of 2016, the Secretary of DNREC of the State of Delaware made an interpretation of the Coastal Zone Act concerning an ethanol plant. This is in response to two DNREC interpretations where people can attend a Coastal Zone Industrial Board Public meeting and give verbal as well as written statements concerning their concerns raised by an erroneous interpretation.
Secretary Small stated in his approval that “….the General Assembly did not intend to doom every existing. …non-conforming use in the coastal zone to extinction by attrition. ..Instead, the legislature clearly expects the Secretary to make a ….judgement call on any proposed expansion. …would contravene legislative intent.”
Chapter 70. Coastal Zone Act
7001 Purpose “It is hereby determined that the coastal areas of Delaware are the most critical areas for the future of the state in terms of the quality of life in the state. …Specifically, this chapter seeks to prohibit entirely the construction of new heavy industry in coastal areas….Therefore, control of industrial development other than that of heavy industry in the coastal zone of Delaware through a permit system at the state level is called for….It is further determined that offshore bulk product transfer represent a significant danger of pollution for the construction of industrial plants in the coastal zone, which construction is declared to be against public policy. For these reasons, prohibition against bulk product transfer facilities in the coastal zone is deemed imperative.”
Based upon the section 7001 of Title 70, the legislature’s express purpose of the coastal zone act was and is to prohibit heavy industry expansion and bulk transfer from shore to ship and ship to shore unless grandfathered in June 28, 1971.
Where there exist a transfer it must be permitted and there must be set asides to mitigate human error, mechanical problems and possible accidents and pollution relative to air, land, water both on the surface and below surface of the area being managed in a way that assures no negative impact or manageable environmental concerns and quality of life in Delaware.
Section 7003. Uses absolutely prohibited in the coastal zone. “Heavy industry uses of any kind not in operation on June 28,1971, are prohibited in the coastal zone and no permits may be issued, therefore. …In addition, off shore gas liquid or solid bulk product transfer facilities which are not in operation on June 28, 1971, are prohibited….”
Section 7004 ….”Except for heavy industry uses….manufacturing uses not in existence and in active use on June 28,1971 are allowed in the coastal zone by permit only….”section 7004(b)(1) requires a full environmental impact not only under normal conditions but also during conditions and circumstances following mechanical malfunctions and humor error.
Consequently, if permitted for either import or export purposes, for a single plant location, there are environmental impacts and set asides and a need to prove sufficient insurance to cover all costs of malfunctions or human error whether its by any transport including rail, pipeline or ship to shore or shore to ship.
In essence, DNREC and the Secretaries of the Markel administration have consistently failed in their duties according to the code and law.
Anyone that wants to attend the up and coming public meeting at the Coastal Zone Industrial Board, which based upon code should be between the third week of February and the first or second week of March, can give verbal or written statements as to why the decision is wrong and erroneous based upon code and purpose and intent contrary to Secretary Small’s December 2016 interpretation.
The Coastal Zone Industrial Board must accept both and can find that the DNREC interpretation is wrong. Any Delawarean can give verbal and written statements at the public meeting. This is something else where ordinary people can make a difference. You can also support the League of Women Voters in their filed objection as well as anyone else who has a filed protest. Please share and add comments. Attend the meeting if at all possible at 9:00 am on February 27th.And from Delaware Way's Nancy Willing ~
The problem is that DNREC never creating the measures by which they would objectively judge appropriate environmental offsets. DNREC is now saying they didn't have to and that the Coastal Zone Act authors didn't really intend to say what it is clearly written into the statute.
- RE: Delaware City Refining Company, LLC's Application for a Coastal Zone Act Permit for its Ethanol Marketing Project, at the Delaware City Refinery, 4550 Wrangle Hill Road, New Castle, New Castle County (CZA Permit No. 427P)
- Hearing officer's report and technical response memorandum included
2017 Appeal of Decision to Allow Delaware City Refinery's Ethanol Project
An erosion of Delaware’s treasured Coastal Zone Act is taking place as we speak, but it may not be too late for redemption. The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Secretary, David Small, can act now with authority and decisiveness to head off a major incursion into the Act’s authority. Let’s explore the background of this unfortunate drama.
Russ Peterson had good reason to prohibit bulk transfer in Delaware’s coastal zone. The first paragraph of the Coastal Zone Act includes this significant line: “…prohibition against bulk product transfer facilities in the coastal zone is deemed imperative.” Why? Because, the law explains, “…offshore bulk product transfer facilities represent a significant danger of pollution to the coastal zone…” One little “oops!” of a bulk product like crude oil and the bay is in for a seriously long recovery period, not to mention millions of dollars in clean-up costs and the loss of fishing and crabbing and recreational opportunities for an indeterminate time.
That’s why the special one-situation-only permit issued by former DNREC Secretary, Collin O’Mara, in 2013 was so unusual, and so remarkably clear in its parameters. O’Mara had said to the Delaware City Refinery (DCR) in his order and the accompanying permit that PBF, the refinery owner, was allowed “to ship up to 45,000 barrels of oil daily from Delaware City to its sister refinery on the Delaware River near Paulsboro,” and then further in the order, “A change in these factors or the use of the facility may result in a different determination.” There’s not a lot of equivocating in these statements.
Called out by a whistle blower after they sent a barge seven miles beyond Paulsboro to a facility with which they were not affiliated, DCR said that they had had some logistical issues which necessitated the bulk transfer and said that it wouldn’t happen again. That apology in itself suggests that they knew they had crossed the line. Each incursion into the Act’s authority should be promptly met with disapproval by DNREC, the department in charge of implementing the Act. The Secretary is obligated to note the infraction on the record and to put the Delaware City Refinery (DCR) on notice that subsequent infractions may be subject to assessment of penalties. This did not happen in this first instance of non-compliance.
Now comes the new disclosure that two additional shipments of several barges each of bulk-transferred oil have made their way up the river from the refinery. DCR appears to have taken a new tack in its approach to its illicit activity: the News Journal reports that letters received by both the Department of Justice and DNREC from the refinery’s spokesperson, John Deemer, say that “the shipment of crude oil from the refinery to locations other than Paulsboro Refinery is not prohibited by any applicable regulatory or permit-based standard.” The NJ report of Dec. 21 reports that refinery officials say that while the order mentions Paulsboro, the actual permit makes no reference to final destinations. The officials claim that “that distinction gives them the right [to] ship crude anywhere and at any time.”
Because the League of Women Voters of Delaware has supported the CZA from its inception and because transgressions of the act could have dire and possibly irremediable consequences, we urge DNREC’s secretary to stand firmly behind the original O’Mara order which generously allowed bulk transfers of crude oil to its affiliated facility but clearly warned that activity beyond that which was specifically allowed would have to be re-permitted.
Jill Fuchs, President, League of Women Voters of Delaware.
2013 Challenge to Red Lion Energy Center “Bloom Boxes” FAIL
2013 Challenge to air quality permit for a crude oil transfer station at the Delaware City oil refinery on the transfer of crude oil received by train at a new rail facility to barges for shipment to another PBF refinery in Paulsboro, N.J.
2013 DE Way post on bulk transfer decision
2015 DE Supreme Court finds for Defendant FAIL
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