Oil tanks are shown near Sprague Terminal in South Portland in February 2023. Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald

An upcoming license renewal would permit Portland Pipe Line Corporation to store and transfer 11 billion gallons of crude oil through its oil tanks in South Portland annually.

Last week, the city sent a letter to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection urging the agency to require air emissions modeling to assess potential health risks in order to renew the license. Or, the city’s letter suggests, the DEP could “accept a voluntary agreement” from the corporation to “permanently decommission four tanks currently out of service on the eastern waterfront and any tanks near Kaler Elementary School and South Portland High School that have been out of service for 10 years or more.”

Portland Pipe Line Corporation operates 23 oil tanks in the city, 15 of which are currently not in service. Some of those 15 have not been used for more than a decade. Many are located adjacent to or near residential areas and schools, and the tanks in question range from 55 to 83 years old, according to the letter.

The City Council voted 5-2 to issue the letter to the Maine DEP at its Jan. 21 meeting, with Mayor Richard Matthews and Councilor Linda Cohen opposed.

Councilor Elyse Tipton brought the letter forward.

“What I get questioned about and hear a lot from members of the community is what is the future, and particularly the future of the health of our residents and children,” Tipton said at the meeting. “People are concerned about the health impacts of the emissions of the tanks.”

Councilor Natalie West agreed, saying the future of South Portland and the future of the oil tanks are intertwined.

“Every meeting of our Comprehensive Plan Committee, the greatest area of debate and struggle for our community is what’s going to happen on the eastern waterfront,” she said. “The trouble is every meeting there are people who get up and say, ‘You can’t allow housing there because of the potential harm to human health if the tanks are operating at full capacity.'”

Tipton said she feels it is the right time for the city to speak up on the issue with the license renewal forthcoming.

“We know that hazardous air pollutants do have a relationship with causes of cancer, of respiratory illness,” Tipton said. “They challenge immune systems. They’re documented to have a relationship with liver and kidney and neurological damage.”

The age of the empty tanks and the amount of oil that is proposed to be used under the new license makes the letter very reasonable, West said.

“We have these tanks that haven’t been used for years but, under their license, at any time they could be used,” West said. “The throughput that’s allowed under the license is 100 times what they did last year and the year before.”

Tipton added that she believes the letter aligns with the reports and recommendations of South Portland’s Clean Air Advisory Committee: It proposes to either assess emissions and related health risks or decommission unused tanks, encourages data-driven decision-making and promotes climate resiliency and sustainable development.

Mayor Matthews said he opposes sending the letter to the state agency.

“My understanding of (the) licensing process is that the DEP is highly unlikely to include these requests in license approval,” Matthews said. “The city has worked collaboratively with the Pipe Line for many years to give our citizens access to very valued open space. I hesitate to jeopardize that collaboration if this letter is unlikely to have an effect on DEP’s process, especially if we have not made an earnest effort to discuss these topics directly with Portland Pipe Line.”

Instead, Matthews said he would like to open a dialogue between the council and the Portland Pipe Line Corp.

“I would gladly set up a meeting with the Portland Pipe Line with myself and the city manager to see if they were open for discussions,” Matthews said, “before we opened up a can of worms with a letter that may not prove to be fruitful.”

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to note that Portland Pipe Line Corporation operates 23 oil tanks in the city, 15 of which are currently not in service.