Kansas City Terminal Resumes Operation after Tuesday Fire

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)-- Magellan Midstream Partners LP (NYSE:MMP) (Tulsa, Oklahoma) has resumed operation at its Kansas City, Kansas, refined petroleum products terminal after a fire erupted at one of its above-ground storage tanks. The fire began on Tuesday night, June 3, 2008, after a lightning strike.

The 145,000-barrel (BBL) tank was about 20% full, containing between 21,000 BBL and 28,000 BBL (or approximately between 882,000 gallons and 1.2 million gallons) of unleaded gasoline. Local fire officials ensured that the fire was contained and allowed the fire to burn itself out. Firefighters sprayed nearby storage tanks at the terminal with water to prevent the blaze from spreading. The fire did not burn off as quickly as officials expected because the internal floating roof remained on top of the gasoline, limiting the amount of oxygen allowed into the flames and slowing the combustion process.

During the fire, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dispatched emergency responders to screen for volatile organic compounds, VOCs and particulate matter. Readings indicated very minor detections of VOCs, which can be hazardous to human health. The EPA, Magellan contractors and other agencies continued to collect data from 60 monitoring locations in the area, with most of them located along or near the course of the smoke cloud caused by the fire. An emphasis was placed on monitoring air quality in residential neighborhoods and near schools, day care centers, hospitals, nursing homes and urgent care centers by concentrating the monitoring points near those locations. After midnight on the night of the fire, there was a reading of 81, east of the fire near U.S. 169, but the readings since then have decreased. The amounts of particulates currently in the air are not high enough to cause health issues. Normal readings for soot are between 0 and 50.

Limited operations have since resumed at the Kansas City terminal. The five-bay truck-loading rack was reopened on June 4. Partial operation of the pipeline connecting the Kansas City terminal with other terminals located further north was also resumed. Both the loading rack and pipeline were closed as a safety precaution. When fully operational, the Kansas City terminal has 35 tanks capable of distributing and storing nearly 1.8 million barrels of gasoline, gasoline-ethanol blends, diesel and jet fuel to in the Midwest. The terminal supplies jet fuel to the Kansas City, Missouri, International Airport and diesel to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Hub in Kansas City, Kansas.

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