NEWS FROM THE DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

Nov. 16, 2009
Vol. 39, No. 449

For more information, contact Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Petroleum shipping company is denied request
for lightering operations in Delaware Bay

DOVER – Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Collin P. O’Mara has denied a New York-based shipping company’s request  to “lighter” oil in the Delaware Bay.

Bouchard Affiliates of Melville, N.Y., had requested a “status decision” under the Delaware Coastal Zone Act regulations, claiming that the company was conducting lightering operations in the Bay before June 28, 1971, the date the Act became law. Lightering takes place at Big Stone Anchorage off the Kent County coast, and involves transferring oil from ocean-going tankers to smaller barges so the petroleum product can travel up the Bay to refineries. 

Only companies that were lightering on that date are grandfathered under the law; otherwise, such activities are prohibited by Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. 

“The Coastal Zone Act explicitly prohibits the establishment of new offshore bulk product transfer facilities within the designated area,” Secretary O’Mara wrote in a letter to Bouchard Affiliates. “Your request would violate this prohibition.

“Further, the documentation provided (by the company) was insufficient to support the claim that Bouchard Affiliates was conducting oil lightering operations at Big Stone Anchorage, before, on, or after June 28, 1971, as required by statue and regulation,” the Secretary wrote. “For these reasons, the request to commence lightering operations is denied.”

There is a 14-day appeal period following the publication of a legal notice on Sunday, November 15.  Anyone wishing to appeal this decision to the State Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board must do so within this timeframe. There is a $100 application fee.

The Delaware Coastal Zone Act Program regulates existing heavy industrial activities, as well as new and existing manufacturing activities in Delaware’s Coastal Zone through a status decision and permit process.  A status decision determines whether an activity is allowed by the Coastal Zone Act and can be permitted under its regulations.

For more information, visit the program’s website at www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Admin/CZA/Pages/default.aspx.