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'71 Jet Fuel Pipeline Draws Little Notice In West Shore

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By MARK HOLAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 29, 2007

Updated: 09/29/2007 12:13 am

TAMPA - The waist-high posts stand in front of homes and businesses along West Shore Boulevard like markers in a 10-mile slalom course from Port Tampa to Drew Park.

Some of the 100 posts are in the open, next to bus stops and telephone poles; others are hidden behind landscaping. Atop each one, in yellow and black letters, is the same message: 'Warning: Fuel Pipeline.'

The pipeline buried 3 feet below has carried millions of gallons of jet fuel since 1971 to Tampa International Airport from the fuel docks near MacDill Air Force Base.

Soon, a competing fuel pipeline to the airport might cut through central city neighborhoods from Hooker's Point, southeast of downtown. Residents of those neighborhoods can learn more about the project Wednesday.

On the west side of Tampa, Sunset Park resident Ellie Montague moved in to her house at West Shore and Browning Avenue three years before crews installed the existing pipeline.

'It scares the hell out of me. It always has,' she said.

Others along the route shrug when asked about the 36-year-old pipeline buried in the right of way fronting their property.

'I've never thought anything about it. It's never caused any problems,' said Virginia Owen, who has lived 55 years in her house at the corner of South Renellie Drive and Cleveland Street in Beach Park.
Orange spray paint in the grass marks the city right of way, and tiny fluttering Verizon flags signal an upcoming project.

Donald F. Byrd, operations manager for pipeline owner Tampa Pipeline Corp., said the company mails information about the pipeline to property owners along the route, takes numerous operating precautions and has an excellent safety record.

Though he doesn't want the competing pipeline, Byrd said central Tampa residents ought to consider a jet fuel pipeline as safe as natural gas lines and other utilities buried throughout the city. The existing pipeline is 6 inches in diameter. The proposed line would be 8 inches.

'They really don't have anything to worry about as long as it's well maintained,' he said.

If built, the second pipeline temporarily would disrupt streets and likely bother some central Tampa residents along the proposed 9-mile route.

A meeting between neighborhood leaders and representatives of Houston-based pipeline company Kinder Morgan is set for 6 p.m. Wednesday at Stetson University College of Law, 1700 N. Tampa St.

Lena Young-Green, president of Tampa Heights Civic Association, says she is hearing mixed reaction in her neighborhood about the project.

'I am not getting a downright negative 100 percent' reaction, she said. 'There are some people who are supportive.'

The $25 million project requires city, state and federal regulatory approval.

Byrd, of Tampa Pipeline, said the company nearly has doubled the number of warning poles along the existing pipeline's route, especially in the busy West Shore corridor, where growth has boomed since the early 1970s. There's a pole in front of Jefferson High School and the North Lois Avenue entrance of International Plaza.

To prevent accidents, Byrd said the company tracks excavation work through special call centers, meets regularly with other utility companies that dig in the city right of way and has an employee drive the pipeline route weekdays to watch for threats.

He said the only rupture to the pipeline was a 2000 accident on airport property that resulted in a 250-gallon spill.

Sarasota-based Tampa Pipeline owns pipelines and fuel-related operations at airports in St. Louis, San Antonio, and Boise, Idaho. The company also owns two anhydrous ammonia pipelines in southeast Hillsborough to serve the phosphate fertilizer industry. One of those lines was vandalized in 2003, resulting in a toxic cloud that killed some animals.

Since 1998, the U.S. Department of Transportation has warned or fined Tampa Pipeline three times, primarily over administrative errors.

Byrd, a former MacDill fuel superintendent, said he doesn't see the need for disrupting central Tampa neighborhoods for the second pipeline proposed by Kinder Morgan.

'We have the capacity,' he said. 'We have everything the airlines and the airport need.'

Byrd said the pipeline typically operates 21 hours a day during the week, usually pumping about 15,000 barrels, or 630,000 gallons. He said the pipeline could carry up to 20,000 barrels a day.

TIA keeps a five- to seven-day supply of jet fuel in six storage tanks, which are owned by the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority and leased to a consortium of airlines. Airport properties director Ted Leslie said TIA never has been caught short of fuel.

'From our standpoint the airlines control their own destiny with regard to fuel,' he said of the proposed pipeline. 'This is a case of business is business, and competition is good.'

The airline consortium and aviation authority rejected Tampa Pipeline's offer to buy the airport's fuel system in 1999.

In 1970, city officials estimated the jet fuel pipeline would eliminate about 45 tanker trucks a day from city streets.

Byrd said it would take 78 trucks a day to match the pipeline's current average daily flow to TIA.

A draft franchise agreement with Kinder Morgan would pay Tampa an annual fee of 44 cents a foot of city right of way along the 9-mile route, or $2,323 a mile.

Tampa Pipeline pays the city $5,500 a year, and the airport $6,116 annually. The company's current agreement with TIA expires Oct. 31, 2009.

'Kinder Morgan wants it all,' Byrd said. 'They could possibly put us out of business.'

Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 835-2102 or mholan@tampatrib.com. Reporter Mark Holan can be reached at (813) 835-2102 or mholan@tampatrib.com.

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