Tank farm removal wanted

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 1

Tank farm removal wanted

Lyttelton residents are adamant that they want the whole of the oil tank farm at the port moved away from a residential area, after the explosion in one of the tanks last week. A public meeting at the port last evening was attended by about 200 residents who quickly resolved that the meeting request Mobil Oil New Zealand, Ltd, to dismantle the remains of the exploded tank and to decommission the remainder of the tank farm in preparation for its removal to another site, away from residential areas. Only one vote was recorded against the motion. The chairman of the meeting, Mr Alan Brown, said that Mobil was awaiting an engineering report on the tank before deciding what further action to take. Mobil’s plant manager who is responsible for operations in both Christchurch and Lyttelton, Mr Alistair Binnie, told local residents that the exploded tank was commissioned in April, 1954, and was not an old tank by oil industry standards. The Labour Department deputy chief inspector of dangerous goods, Mr Graham Collins, told residents they could make written or oral submissions to Mr Trevor McQuoid, a senior inspector in the department. He will conduct.

his inquiry into the cause of the explosion, at the Lyttelton Borough Council Chambers’ today and tomorrow. Mr Collins said the cause of the accident was no mystery. A report on the equipment involved was awaited from the D.S.I.R. “It would be a little premature for me to state categorically what the cause was,” he said. “There are a number of things that cause accident or injury; one is human error and another is mechanical breakdown. I can say that perhaps in this case that it was a mechanical breakdown of equipment.” He agreed with a resident that it could have been caused by a fault in an extension lead. Mr David Palmer, a lawyer, gave the meeting a summary of the legal position regarding the tank farm. He said it was not possible to say whether Mobil could rebuild the tank as of right. More information was needed, and Mobil itself probably did not have that information yet. The decision would depend on the value of the tank before the explosion and the value the reinstated tank would add to the tank farm. “There is not enough information to say if planning consent would be required,” Mr Palmer said. He criticised the state of the Dangerous Goods Regu-

lations, which came into force in 1955. The Labour Department was now drawing up its own draft regulations, without the force of law, to fill gaps in the legislation, Mr Palmer said.

Mr Palmer suggested that residents wait and see what Mobil decided to do and should it decide to reinstate the exploded tank to see whether town-planning consent was required.

The safety adviser for Mobil, Mr Harry Kiriakidis, also attended the meeting and answered residents questions on the working of the the tank farm and the events leading up to the explosion. At the end of the meeting residents decided to establish a Lyttelton Harbour Residents’ Association to watch the interests of the residents in relation to the tank farm.