Business is booming at Dulles International Airport. But with more and more airplanes and passengers comes a greater need for fuel. And that's where Colonial Pipeline Co. comes in.
Terry Mock, a right-of-way consultant with Colonial, explained the details at the July 18 meeting of the West Fairfax County Citizens Association (WFCCA) Land-Use Committee.
HE EXPLAINED that his company is an interstate carrier of refined petroleum products and already delivers aviation fuel into Dulles via a 6-inch pipeline. But airport officials are now asking for more.
"As air travel has increased, and demand has increased capacity [at Dulles], the airport has asked Colonial and Plantation Pipeline — another company also providing a 6-inch line to it — to expand their service to the airport," said Mock.
"So we're proposing a 20-inch diameter line off one of our existing, 36-inch pipelines off of McLearen Road," he continued. "And we think we've worked out a route for it."
Mock said the pipeline would travel across land parcels owned by various people and entities and needs a special-exception permit to traverse two parcels owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority. He also noted that the Park Authority has no objection to the plan.
He said the pipe would be made of steel and, once it was installed, Colonial's Pipeline Patrol would fly over weekly in a private plane to check that the pipeline hasn't sustained any "third-party damage or vandalism." He estimated construction of the pipeline will take about four months, and he said work should start either at the end of this year or early in 2007.
Following his presentation, the WFCCA approved the proposal unanimously. The matter now goes to the county Planning Commission, this Thursday, July 27, and to the Board of Supervisors next Monday, July 31.
In answer to a question from a WFCCA panel member who commented on the high price of fuel nowadays, Mock said Colonial delivers an average of 100 million gallons of refined product a day, and it costs about 2 cents a gallon to transport it. "But we don't own the product in the pipe," he added. "We just deliver it."
"We don't own the product in the pipe. We just deliver it."
<ro1>— Terry Mock, Colonial Pipeline consultant