L.A. port green lights oil terminal project

 

 Port of Los Angeles commissioners approved an environmental impact report for a $500 million oil terminal and pipeline project at the port.

   The five-acre import terminal project calls for the construction of a new petroleum products-dedicated wharf on the port's Pier 400, two 250,000-barrel-capacity storage tanks and a pipeline extension. The pipeline will connect the terminal to a nearby existing tank farm providing an additional 3.5 million barrels of storage. The project's new onsite storage capacity will equal roughly 4 percent of Southern California annual demand for crude oil.

   The environmental documents, required by state law, must now be approved by the Los Angeles City Council before the project can move forward.

   The terminal is the second major development project to receive environmental document approval since port commissioners earlier this year broke a nearly five-year self-imposed moratorium on development -- imposed in response to threats of litigation from environmental groups.

   The five-member commission last week also awarded a major contract for the TraPac terminal expansion project. Earlier this year, the TraPac project -- on the drawing board for nearly a decade -- broke the logjam of projects that had been stalled since the self-imposed moratorium began in 2003.

   The board approved a $57 million contract with Griffith Co. to build a park-like buffer zone between the terminal and the surrounding unincorporated Los Angeles community of San Pedro. The 30-acre green zone, part of a complex agreement between the port and several environmental groups that allowed the entire TraPac expansion project to move forward without litigation, is to be completed in 2010.

   Commissioners also approved $13 million for nearly 50 air-quality programs related to the port's 2003 mitigation agreement signed with environmental groups over a terminal development project. The China Shipping terminal project, which found the port sued by the environmental groups over allegedly inadequate environmental documents for the project, was the impetus that led to the self-imposed development moratorium at both Los Angeles and the neighboring Long Beach port. 

Source: Transportweekly