Regulators have raised alarm over a proposal to add another aviation fuel storage facility at Cyril E. King Airport, citing worries about environmental damage and aircraft safety if hurricanes or emergencies strike the area.
Hairoun Aviation Services, operating as ExecuJet Flight Services, wants to build a 76,000-gallon fuel farm on airport land at Estate Lindbergh Bay. The installation would feature five double-walled storage tanks on steel supports: three at 12,000 gallons each and two at 20,000 gallons each.
This would be the third such fuel storage project proposed for the same coastal zone within five years, according to Coastal Zone Management Director Marlon Hibbert. Two existing fuel operations already operate nearby: Total petroleum and Standard Aviation.
Hibbert told the St. Thomas Coastal Zone Management Committee that the buildup of fuel operations in one location creates a significant risk. "So the area is now, for all intents and purposes, a huge fuel farm," he said. Committee Chair Jawanza Wallace-Hilaire pressed whether anyone had studied whether the area could safely handle more storage. "There's more potential impact the more number of operators are within the vicinity," he warned.
Hairoun president F. Britt Harrington argued that the new facility is needed to meet winter demand from November through April, when existing suppliers run short. "I've been at the airport over 20 years, and Total has run out of gas..many times during the busy period," he told commissioners. He also noted the company had recently built a new fixed-base operator facility on the north side and needed the tank farm to support it.
Engineer Damian Cartwright described safety features: double-walled tanks, concrete foundations, perimeter containment, security fencing and backup power. Environmental consultant Amy Dempsey said the site sits on already-disturbed airport land with no critical vegetation and lies at least 50 feet from the shoreline.
Yet the environmental assessment shows a potential weakness: the design holds 110 percent of tank capacity in containment, but the two largest tanks each hold 20,000 gallons, leaving unclear whether all protection systems will work together as intended. Public speakers raised concerns that a major hurricane could breach defences and push fuel into nearby waters that shelter federally protected coral.
Another issue surfaced around fuel delivery trucks crossing active taxiways where aircraft operate. Harrington said the company would schedule deliveries "after hours or when it's least congested" and would secure required Federal Aviation Administration approvals.
The application is in a 30-day public comment period. The committee will decide at a future meeting.
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