Chesapeake stalls Allied acid tank plans

Chesapeake, Va.-Allied Terminals is warning that the city’s decision not to allow storing of sulfuric acid or any other hazardous chemical without a conditional use permit will have a chilling effect on the entire port, where at least six or more terminals similar to Allied operate. “The position taken by the city and the zoning administrators has created a situation where storing any type of hazardous material is a very questionable situation,” according to Allied President Michael Law. Law indicated to Green Markets that because of the costs and “a worst case scenario of a year to a year and a half before we could even start” that Allied may give up entirely on the sulfuric acid proposal. The Chesapeake Board of Zoning Appeals voted 5 to 0 to require the conditional use permit, leaving Allied with the choice of appealing to the circuit court within 30 days or waiting out the city permit process, which Law says he has been told would take from three to 12 months. Assistant Chesapeake City Attorney Catherine Lindley told the local press that if Allied doesn’t appeal it would have to obtain the conditional use permit from both the Chesapeake Planning Commission and the Chesapeake City Council; she said getting a permit to store hazardous chemicals will require various studies to show the impact of a sulfuric acid spill on the community and emergency services. “It’s not an issue with just Allied Terminals,” Law emphasized. “Every other terminal in the harbor has the exact same problems I have (because) anytime you have to go through a conditional use permit it’s not a slam dunk.” Residents of nearby South Hill homes, flooded in 2008 by the release of 2 million gallons of liquid fertilizer from an Allied tank, were on hand to express their opposition. One of them declared at the hearing Oct. 28, “I don’t want an acid tank 60 feet from my door.” The president of their homeowners’ group declared that if Allied appeals the fight isn’t over because “we’ll be back down here in a couple of more months fighting the same thing we’re fighting now.”