SOUTH PORTLAND — A proposal for a liquid propane gas depot at Rigby Yard has city officials expanding their zoning vocabulary.

NGL Supply Terminal Co. wants to install six 60,000-gallon propane storage tanks at the rail yard, an industrial site off Main Street (Route 1), between the Cash Corner and Thornton Heights neighborhoods. The depot would replace a smaller railside storage facility on Commercial Street in Portland, where the state is expanding the International Marine Terminal.

NGL has asked city officials to view the tanks as “pressure vessels,” which are specifically defined and regulated under state law, according to a report from Maintenance & Turnaround Resources, a Hondo, Texas, consulting company hired by NGL.

The city’s outdated zoning ordinance doesn’t mention “pressure vessels,” but it does prohibit more loosely defined “above ground storage tanks” that hold more than 25,000 gallons of anything, either individually or in total. The port city already has 87 massive oil or gasoline fuel storage tanks and two existing propane storage facilities – one on Lincoln Street, near Interstate 295, and another on outer Broadway, near the Scarborough line.

City planners have hired Woodard & Curran of Portland to review zoning regulations related to NGL’s proposal and recommend next steps, said Tex Haeuser, planning director. A report is expected within weeks.

 

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