HomeMy WebLinkAboutReg 2011-10-03 Item 6A - Blue Star - Attachment H - Letter from Blue Star Gas to City Dated 9/6/2011r
September 06, 2011
Brandon J. Miles, Senior Planner
City of Tukwila
6300 Southcenter Blvd., Ste. 100
Tukwila, WA 98188
RE: Proposed Blue Star Gas Propane Fueling Facilitv at 10802 E. Marginal Wav
Dear Brandon:
Thank you for arranging last week's meeting. As you indicated, the meeting was very
productive and we hope to resolve Sound Transit's concerns as we move forward to the October
3rd City Council public meeting. Blue Star Gas is very concerned, and wishes to clearly convey
the level of our concern, that this process with Sound Transit has further delayed our project.
You know the challenges we have already faced in timing of this project with the moratorium by
the City of Tukwila, and the two month delay that caused us. It is imperative that this project go
before the Tukwila City Council on October 3` With that in mind, and in an effort to assist in
expediting that deadline, I write to respond to the four questions raised in the Sound Transit
meeting last week.
As indicated at the meeting, the enclosed site plan and changes, reflects a considerable
additional investment by Blue Star Gas to address these concerns and to keep this project moving
forward. Our goal is that, by addressing these concerns proactively, you will fulfill all deadlines
to meet the requirements for the October 3` City Council meeting. If there are any other
questions that Sound Transit would like us to address I ask that they be conveyed directly to you
by the end of business, September 7 which was discussed at the end of the meeting. It is
extremely important this project moves through as it is now on track for construction delays and
increased costs, as well as the exhaustion of a free rent period.
Question One: How frequent will tankers deliver propane to the bulk tank?
Tanker deliveries will be infrequent in terms of the deliveries we expect and the time
involved in actually transferring the propane into the bulk tank. At the outset, our operation will
require one delivery per month but, we estimate that the deliveries will increase over time to six
per month as we develop more customers in the Puget Sound area. It takes two hours to unload a
tanker, so there will be approximately 12 hours of transfer time each month. There will be no
parking of the large tankers at this property.
Question Two: Could the ingress /egress direction for a tanker be reversed so that a
tanker transfers its load into the bulk tank before turning under the Sound Transit
Guideway and exiting the site?
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Attachment H
Sound Transit asked this question to see if there was a way to minimize the amount of
time a tanker with product in it spends under the Guideway while conducting a delivery. If a
tanker transferred its load into the bulk tank first, then it would be empty before making its turn
under the Guideway to proceed out of the facility.
We can accommodate this request with our revised site plan without sacrificing the
effectiveness of the automated fire suppression system, in our opinion. It is obviously
appropriate that Fire Marshal Tomaso review this new plan and render his opinion. We are
attempting to meet with either Marshal Tomaso or Al Metzler at the Tukwila Fire Department on
September 6 when we are in Tukwila.
Question Three: Will Blue Star Gas park its bobtail delivery trucks under the
Guideway at any time?
We will not be parking our local bobtail delivery trucks under the Guideway. Our site
plan contains three parking areas for our delivery trucks. These parking spots are located in the
southwest comer of the parcel. The delivery trucks will be parked only in this parking area when
they are not operating during, the normal work day. It is possible that we could park other
vehicles which do not deliver propane under the Guideway, which complies with Sound
Transit's easement.
Question Four: When the delivery bobtail trucks are parked overnight, will they be
full or empty?
From an operational and safety perspective, we prefer to fill our delivery trucks at the end
of the work day so that they are ready to go in case there is an interruption of service call from a
customer. As discussed in question three above, these bobtails will be parked a significant
distance from the Guideway and will not encroach on Sound Transit's easement.
We anticipate receiving your final comments on September 9, and look forward to
addressing any additional concerns Sound Transit may have with our proposed project. Again, I
can be reached via email at cmastruiDObluestareas.com or via telephone at 707 -573 -3130.
Sincerely,
ems
Chris Mastrup
Director of Safety and Training
(Enclosure)
cc: Don Tomaso, City of Tukwila Fire Marshal;
Hamid A. Qassim, Sound Transit Director of Safety Quality Assurance
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