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City Opposes Fuel Terminal

April 17, 2006

By BRIAN ALLEN / Today Newspapers

UPDATE: On April 18, The Musket Corp; a subsidiary of Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Inc. announced it has withdrawn an air permit application it filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to operate a bulk fuel terminal on the Mid-Texas Auto Park property.

In response to unprecedented community feedback on the issue (most of it not in favor) city officials have announced opposition to a proposed fuel terminal on environmental grounds.

The Musket Corp., a subsidiary of Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores, Inc., filed an air permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to operate a bulk fuel terminal.

They plan to put the terminal on the Mid-Texas Auto Park property (south of Holcim cement on Hwy. 67) and would use it to transfer ethanol and other fuels from railroad tanker cars to tanker trucks.

Musket has requested permission from TCEQ to transfer as many as 3,456,000 gallons of fuel per day, which would generate as many as 345 truckloads worth of fuel.

The city council, however, is not in Musket Corp’s corner. It has written a letter to the TCEQ asking it to deny Musket’s permit application.

“Our city’s formal opposition is based on a variety of factors, but is primarily centered on our concern about likely impacts on area air and water quality, and resulting risks to the health, safety and welfare of our citizens,” the letter reads.

Ellis County is designated as a non-attainment area re-garding air quality, and Mayor Boyce Whatley said officials are concerned the terminal will negatively impact the county’s non-compliance.

And he’s not alone in his concerns.

“I’ve had more phone calls in the past few weeks than I had in seven years on the council,” he said.

The council has also requested a public hearing on the issue.

The Midlothian Family Net-work, a group dedicated to “quality of life matters in the cement capital of Texas,” has been following the issue and is encouraging citizens to write Love’s management.

“Please write Jenny Love Meyer (Love’s spokesperson) at Love’s/Musket and ask her company to go away,” the network’s website urges.

No date has been set for a public hearing yet.

The proposed Midlothian site would be the second ethanol loading facility in Texas. Motiva Enterprises has a facility in south Dallas.

Ethanol’s chemical properties do not allow it to be mixed with gasoline in storage tanks.

Meyer has said that the ethanol at this facility would not be stored but moved from rail cars to truck tankers and then shipped to storage facilities in Dallas-Fort Worth.

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