Heavy industry pressures Amelia Island and Nassau County – An Opinion

Submitted by Faith Ross
November 12, 2014 9:42 a.m.

FO Note: The City of Fernandina Beach Planning Advisory Board will meet tonight, November 12, 2014, to consider the current version of the Port Master Plan. The public is welcome to attend and comment at this meeting, which will be held at Fernandina Beach City Hall, 204 Ash Street, at 5:00 p.m.

If you have not at least looked at the Port of Fernandina’s expansion plans in its “Realm of Possibilities” Master Plan, it may soon be too late. The City Planning Advisory Board will review the plan on November 12, 2014 at 5 pm. The “Plan” may be found at www.fbfl.us/CompPlan. All of its Sections can be located about halfway down the website under “OHPA Port Master Plan Update Documents”. This plan also comes to Nassau County.

Well hidden in the midst of the exhaustive 240 pages is not only a proposed 60,000 acre Kingsport Industrial Complex across the river in Georgia, but other issues that some may find concerning. For the sake of convenience, I have cited some of the sections and pages that will greatly impact our lifestyle. The jobs in Georgia would be great for Nassau County, but there are some parts of the plan for the Port of Fernandina that we may find unwelcome.

LNG (Liquid Natural Gas)

According to the Ocean Highway Port Authority’s “data” and Master Plan, the Kingsport industrial complex would stretch from the southern end of the town of Woodbine, Georgia on the Satilla River to the southern shorelines of the town of St. Mary’s. According to Figure 3.4-2 of the Port’s Master Plan, this industrial complex includes over 2,000 acres of “Mega Petrochemical” sites, thousands of acres of container storage and warehouse areas, a Space Port, 1,000 acres of auto assembly import and export, a golf course, an executive airport, 30 mi of dockage and a 130 acre LNG facility site among many other industrial uses.

While we ponder a Kingsport that may never materialize for many years, if ever, we do have a Port Master Plan before us that describes Fernandina Beach as “well suited” to the exportation of the Containerized ISA form of LNG supposedly obtained from Kingsport (Page 4-8). Rail transport of LNG is also noted (Page 4-8).

If you are not familiar with the term “LNG”, this is liquid natural gas (Click here for more information.) The LNG process cools natural gas to 260 degrees below zero to become 1/600th of its size for shipment. There is a reason why the Port’s Plan states, “When an LNG ship arrives at a port, the port has to shut down for approximately three hours while it unloads.”(Page 4-8) An LNG vapor cloud can explode with a force that can devastate anything in its path for miles.

Though LNG is not explosive in its chilled state, once it leaks and becomes vaporized, it is explosive when given an ignition source. Due to its cold nature, the vapor cloud generally hugs the ground. Most independent information will tell you that the vaporized gas suffocates its victims if it does not explode. Depending on the size of the facility or the amount of LNG, a blast buffer of 2 miles is generally recognized for the safety of the public for ships. (Shrapnel from the blast can be thrown farther.) You may wish to read about the recent LNG accident in Plymouth, Washington. Other fatal accidents have been less forgiving in Algeria, Cleveland, and Cove Point, Maryland.

The Port’s plan also states, “The U.S. is increasingly producing and permitting for export bulk LNG in specialty ships and ISA containerized freight that moves by rail or truck.” (Page 4-8) You may want to read about the attempt that was made in Savannah to truck LNG out of the city from Elba Island. The citizens stopped the trucking of LNG through the city. http://savannahnow.com/news/2012-03-31/lng-trucking-operation-plans-dropped-savannah.

With our heavy log truck traffic and other burgeoning truck traffic, I guess I would ask the following questions:

• Do we really need to add explosive truck containers to our existing mix of log trucks, retail shoppers, tourists, and school buses? Are we really going to put LNG container trucks on our busy Route A1A in Yulee? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLGM_2l0zok (LNG truck explosion)
• If LNG is easily compressed, stored and shipped in a remote area such as Kingsport because it explodes, then why would the Port of Fernandina put LNG on trucks or trains through our most heavily populated streets and our heavily traveled highways?

Other Local Items of Concern in the Plan

-Taxation to Fund the Port of Fernandina
From the Port’s Plan – Section 7, Found at “7.4.2 Ad Valorem”
“Ad Valorem taxation may be a funding mechanism available to the Port of Fernandina.” “The Tampa Port Authority is the only Florida port with a dedicated ad valorem tax. Their current assessment, $0.1750 per $1,000 of property valuation, is used to fund capital improvements.” (See page 7-8)

Increased Truck Traffic
Multiple calculations can be found in the Port’s Plan found in Section 6.
The FDOT truck projections submitted to the City Planning Advisory Board are found under “Reference Documents”, “Courtesy Review Comments from State Agencies”. FDOT, “The daily trucks should be estimated at 1,508, not 905. Total new daily trips should be 1,711.” (Page 2)

I hope we can all take the time to read at least a few sections of this important document before it is too late to put protections together for Amelia Island and Nassau County. The Port’s plan as written will definitely change our lifestyle and add tremendous industrial pressure to Amelia Island and additional container truck traffic to AIA. We need to plan carefully for future industrial intrusion and for our public safety.

Editor’s Note: As an educator and reading specialist, Faith Ross has taught in Massachusetts,Maryland, and Pennsylvania. She and her husband Chip purchased their home in
Fernandina 6 years ago and are now residents. Faith enjoys reading, walks on the beach, and dining at the many downtown restaurants that are within walking distance from her home. She also enjoy telling my frequent visitors and friends from out of town that Fernandina is an amazing place to live!