Tuesday’s front page provided one of those headlines that will send Podunkians back to the panic stations. A cautionary tone about the state of gasoline supplies in the city and our reliance on a highway link to Terrace and beyond to ensure a steady supply.
With the recent highway closure still fresh in our minds (as are the lengthy line ups and subsequent draining of the city’s gas stations) the paper suggested that future gasoline shortages could very well come our way this summer should the highway be required to close once again.
‘WE COULD RUN OUT OF FUEL IN A DAY’ CITY IS WARNED
Recent flood shows lack of storage, city is in need of constant supplies of fuel
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Pages one and two
Emergency officials say the high demand for fuel during the summer months means people should expect future gas shortages in the community during any prolonged highway closures.
Reporting on the flood that closed Highway 16 for five days earlier this month. Fire Chief Ron Miller said the demand for fuel for boats and vehicles far exceeds the city’s storage capacity even for a day.
In the summer months, several trucks arrive each day to meet the community’s needs.
“An awful lot of fuel moves through this community to support the economic engine,” said Miller. “The storage capacity at the peak of the season is not even adequate to hold a day’s supply.”
During the flood, Miller and Robert Stromdahl of Prince Rupert Petro-Can were able to arrange to barge two million litres of fuel into the community, but the reality is it takes about three days for the barge to arrive and other than the tanks at various gas stations, there is nowhere to store the extra fuel once it gets here,” said Miller.
“My hope would be if this was to reoccur again, probably a day and a half of negotiations, wrangling and conversations that went on (to get the barge) this time could be avoided because having done it once, all parties would understand quickly what had to be done,” said Miller.
“But it still would involve a delay and my gut reaction is it would involve outages before we would be able to replace fuel.”
Miller explained that in the past, fuel providers had tank farms where fuel was stored.
But over the years, they have centralized operations and during the Highway 16 closures, most gas stations were out of fuel in two days.
While the Port of Prince Rupert offered access to its limited storage capacity and the Canadian Coast Guard’s Sir Wilfred Laurier offered access to additional diesel, it still would not have covered the need of the extra tourists, sports fishermen and commercial fleet, had the road remained closed for longer than five days.
Getting fuel by barge was a fight in itself, added Miller, because of the many regulatory issues involved not only in transporting fuel, but negotiating coverage for the added costs with the province.
“I must compliment Petro-Canada’s local representative Robert Stromdahl as well as Petro-Canada itself. While a lot companies where figuring out how not to assist us and why they couldn’t get a barge up here, they were figuring out ways we could,” said Miller.
Despite council’s concerns about the need to have a constant supply, Miller said the best they could do in the future is to try and keep the barges coming and keep their fingers crossed.
“As far as moving fuel into the community in an effective manner, the only way to do that is barge service and the harsh reality is the barge service from the Lower Mainland to here is better than a three-day trip,” he said. “It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think this could go on for a two- or three-week period and if that was to happen in terms of fuel, this community would come to a grinding halt,’ said Coun. Ken Cote.
‘WE COULD RUN OUT OF FUEL IN A DAY’ CITY IS WARNED
Recent flood shows lack of storage, city is in need of constant supplies of fuel
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Pages one and two
Emergency officials say the high demand for fuel during the summer months means people should expect future gas shortages in the community during any prolonged highway closures.
Reporting on the flood that closed Highway 16 for five days earlier this month. Fire Chief Ron Miller said the demand for fuel for boats and vehicles far exceeds the city’s storage capacity even for a day.
In the summer months, several trucks arrive each day to meet the community’s needs.
“An awful lot of fuel moves through this community to support the economic engine,” said Miller. “The storage capacity at the peak of the season is not even adequate to hold a day’s supply.”
During the flood, Miller and Robert Stromdahl of Prince Rupert Petro-Can were able to arrange to barge two million litres of fuel into the community, but the reality is it takes about three days for the barge to arrive and other than the tanks at various gas stations, there is nowhere to store the extra fuel once it gets here,” said Miller.
“My hope would be if this was to reoccur again, probably a day and a half of negotiations, wrangling and conversations that went on (to get the barge) this time could be avoided because having done it once, all parties would understand quickly what had to be done,” said Miller.
“But it still would involve a delay and my gut reaction is it would involve outages before we would be able to replace fuel.”
Miller explained that in the past, fuel providers had tank farms where fuel was stored.
But over the years, they have centralized operations and during the Highway 16 closures, most gas stations were out of fuel in two days.
While the Port of Prince Rupert offered access to its limited storage capacity and the Canadian Coast Guard’s Sir Wilfred Laurier offered access to additional diesel, it still would not have covered the need of the extra tourists, sports fishermen and commercial fleet, had the road remained closed for longer than five days.
Getting fuel by barge was a fight in itself, added Miller, because of the many regulatory issues involved not only in transporting fuel, but negotiating coverage for the added costs with the province.
“I must compliment Petro-Canada’s local representative Robert Stromdahl as well as Petro-Canada itself. While a lot companies where figuring out how not to assist us and why they couldn’t get a barge up here, they were figuring out ways we could,” said Miller.
Despite council’s concerns about the need to have a constant supply, Miller said the best they could do in the future is to try and keep the barges coming and keep their fingers crossed.
“As far as moving fuel into the community in an effective manner, the only way to do that is barge service and the harsh reality is the barge service from the Lower Mainland to here is better than a three-day trip,” he said. “It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to think this could go on for a two- or three-week period and if that was to happen in terms of fuel, this community would come to a grinding halt,’ said Coun. Ken Cote.
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