Residents of a Florida community say they agree with the concept of a fuel tank park in Florida, but oppose its location. Matthew McClellan reports.
STREET. ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A St. Petersburg-based oil company will seek utilities at the planned site for a new fuel terminal in Ormond Beach after city commissioners voted Wednesday against allowing the proposed facility to use the city’s water. if built.
People gathered at the meeting, the public demonstration was to denounce the proposed fuel garage farm near their neighborhoods. Before the meeting, other people covered the streets with symptoms that read “empty the fuel dump. “
“Not in the middle of all those communities, all those houses and all those businesses,” Szemborski said. “We are less than a kilometer away from this nightmare. “
Based in St. Petersburg, Belvedere Terminals needs to build a fleet of surface fuel tanks and loading docks for trucks and wagons near a wooded domain near Hull Road in Volusia County.
Belvedere Terminals President Edwin Cothron said the new formula “will use rail cars and sites that will set new industry standards for operational safety.
The company has two more initial sites planned in Jacksonville and Fort Pierce, and seven more sites will be developed in the state over the next five years. Belvedere said the task would help improve Florida’s fuel supply chain and make the fuel more available for hurricanes.
In an announcement Tuesday, Belvedere Terminals President Edwin Cothron said the new formula “will use rail cars and locations that will set new industry standards for operational safety. “This new fuel delivery formula will help reduce fuel costs for consumers. and provide a safer and more reliable way to get fuel into the state that is not subject to port closures in the event of a hurricane.
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Cothron added that the company is in communication with Florida state officials and hopes the task will benefit Floridians by “eliminating some fuel deliveries from Florida’s fragile and unique waterways while strengthening the fuel supply chain. “
Map of Florida with the locations of the proposed oil parks.
A permit from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection says Ormond Beach would come with 16 garage tanks containing gas, ethanol, diesel and propane. People who live nearby worry about traffic, air quality, the price of their home, or an accident.
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“It completely blinded us,” said Elena Krafft, who lives nearby. “We had no idea this was going to happen. Since then, we’ve all been actively trying to prevent it. ” Kraft said that while he understands the need for independence in Florida, “we just don’t think it’s that close to neighborhoods. “
A group of protesters gathered outside an oil park in Florida.
The county in question is in Volusia County, not the city. The county told FOX 35 Orlando that the company has not yet filed any permitting programs with them. The allocation is still in its early stages, but the land has proper zoning to build. a tank park.
FOX 13 reached out to Belvedere Terminals for a response to the Ormond Beach City Commission’s vote on the site’s utilities. This story will be updated once the company provides a statement.
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