Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board's PFB Refinery Decision Has Left Everyone Hanging

I hope everyone realizes that reporters do not write headlines......

REFINERY DISPUTE AFTERMATH

AGING COASTAL LAW SEEN AS OUT OF STEP The decision over a permit for the Delaware City Refinery revealed the shortcomings of the 1971 Coastal Zone Act to deal with Delaware’s economic and environmental future, opposing organizations in the debate contend.

Catch Jeff Montgomery's story in today's News Journal ~ Rival groups weigh opening can of worms over aging coastal zone law

The short-circuited challenge to PBF Energy’s crude oil supply plans has sparked new talk of a Coastal Zone Act update, with some seeing a need to close industrial development loopholes and others hoping to open the 42-year-old conservation law to new opportunities for growth as economies and industries change.........Last Tuesday, the Coastal Zone board dismissed the appeal after unanimously agreeing that the Delaware Audubon and Sierra Club had failed to prove their right to proceed based on failure to show clear harm or jeopardy for 16 individuals who backed their case.

The dismissal, critics said, left im­portant questions unanswered, and seemingly raised new hurdles for citi­zen and civic group appeals. “I think it could set a very dangerous precedent for companies who might think they can combine permits in the future,” said Brenna Goggin, environ­mental advocate for the Delaware Na­ture Society, “or for those who seek an air permit and then, if the secretary, whoever he or she might be, decides to add a Coastal Zone decision to the air permit, suddenly doesn’t have to go through the process." Goggin said that the re­finery’s operation should still undergo Coastal Zone review as “a good faith” move, adding, “I don’t see how you could just say, ‘Well, not this time.’ ” Kenneth T. Kristl, a Widener University Law School professor who rep­resented Audubon and Si­erra in the appeal, said he believed the groups have grounds for an appeal.

Delaware Audubon president Mark Martell said he already is pre­pared to go forward, but local Sierra Club mem­bers said they have to seek their national organiza­tion’s review. State lawmakers ap­proved the Coastal Zone Act in 1971, banning new heavy industries from a 275,000-acre area border­ing the Delaware River, Delaware Bay and Atlan­tic Coast. It also barred new offshore terminals that receive bulk prod­ucts, such as oil or coal, for use elsewhere. But decades would pass before the state approved a single set of regulations to manage Coastal Zone decisions. Some require­ments for those regula­tions, meanwhile, were never developed. “It’s a legacy. It’s not just an environmental con­cern,” Goggin said. “It’s a question of what kind of precedent this is setting under a governor who promised to uphold the legacy of Gov. [Russell] Peterson, and has consis­tently referred back to the effort and courage of Gov. Peterson.”

The environmental law was considered the signa­ture achievement of Peter­son, who was governor from 1969 to 1973. William H. Dunn, presi­dent of the Civic League for New Castle County, said that the refinery case had revealed new gray areas in the law that need clarification. “I think that outside groups might prompt the Legislature to go back and say we have to have better definitions for these things,” Dunn said. “But if you open that can of worms, potentially you have legal representatives and lobbyists on the other side who will say we should be loosening the regulations rather than tightening them.”

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