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PIPELINE ALTERNATIVES
For the past two years the City of Seattle (City) has been preparing to negotiate a new franchise agreement with Olympic Pipeline (OPL) that would continue to allow OPL to transport liquid fuels through the Seattle lateral, a 12.5 mile pipeline off the OPL mainline. The mainline generally follows the 1-5 corridor south from Whatcom County to Portland. The Seattle lateral runs from Renton, through southeast Seattle, across the Spokane Street Bridge to a tank farm on Harbor Island. The tank farm is a regional distribution center for truck delivery of fuel throughout the Puget Sound and Eastern Washington.
The City is committed to negotiating a franchise agreement that ensures OPL maintains and operates the Seattle lateral in a safe manner. The City currently has the power to suspend or cease OPL's ability to use the City right-of-way to transport fuel. If the City was to require suspension of operations, there are alternative methods that OPL could use to transport fuel.
Barging
Petroleum barges are used throughout the world to transport multiple types of fuel in all types of bodies of water. Locally, they operate on a daily basis in Puget Sound, on the Columbia River and up and down the West Coast at major ports. One barge can carry as much as 4 million gallons of fuel. To supply the amount of fuel currently provided by the Seattle lateral would require about one and a half barges per week or three barges every two weeks.
Petroleum barges in Puget Sound must be certified by the U.S Coast Guard and the International Safety Managers and undergo regular yearly inspections and dry dock structural inspections twice during a five-year period. Seattle is home to one of the 12 Federal National Spill Response teams, and the Clean Sound Cooperative has equipment and personnel stationed throughout Puget Sound to respond to spills from the Canadian border to the Straits of Juan De Fuca if there is a barge spill.
The estimated cost increase for barging rather than using the Seattle lateral is about one cent per gallon.
Trucking
Trucking fuel from the refineries in Whatcom and Skagit counties is a more costly option than either transporting fuel through the pipeline or barging it. To supply the amount of fuel currently provided by the Seattle lateral would require more than 100 trucks traveling along the I-5 corridor per day. The cost increase for trucking rather than using the Seattle lateral is estimated to be more than three cents per gallon depending on the delivery point.
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