Fuel Tank Approved for Irwin Marine

2078

By Allison Perrine

The Red Bank Zoning Board recently approved a 2,000-gallon fuel tank for Irwin Marine and its marina business boats. Via Facebook.

RED BANK – A 2,000-gallon fuel tank will soon be installed at Irwin Marine after the borough zoning board unanimously granted its approval last Thursday night, Feb. 18.

The fuel tank, permitted to applicant Channing P. Irwin, owner of Irwin Marine, will be located at the end of Iceboat Lane behind a warehouse on the left side of the yard where boat services and maintenance are performed. The permit to construct the tank was approved by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) in December before Red Bank gave the final OK Thursday night for the site plan and variance.

However, the fuel tank will not be open for public use; it will only be available for use by marina business boats. Any of those eligible boaters would refuel by scheduling time to use the tank. The closest place for the public to fuel up a boat is in Highlands Borough at Bahr’s Landing.

Fuel deliveries are expected to be made once a week from a 2,500-gallon truck, as space is limited in that area. The tank will sit about 100 feet from the docks and will be a double tank so in case there is a leak, the fuel will spill into the second tank and not into the water. It will be held up on skids and will sit off the ground on a concrete pad, strapped with cables.

The permit does not allow for any waterfront structures.

The application first came before the zoning board Aug. 6, 2020, when Irwin originally requested a 1,000 gallon above-ground gas tank on the property. At that time the board heard the applicant’s testimony and a public hearing was conducted. The plan was not permitted that night as board members wanted Irwin to return at a later date with approval from the NJDEP to continue with the plan. That DEP permit was granted Dec. 7 and is set to expire Dec. 6, 2025, when Irwin will have to reapply for it. It authorizes the construction of the fuel tank with pre-construction, special and standard conditions.

“There’s been no other issuance or issues raised by the DEP,” said Michael Dupont, Irwin’s attorney of McKenna, Dupont, Stone & Washburne in Red Bank.

Ir win will have to install a silt fence along the water ward side of the development with 10-foot returns on each side before the fuel tank is constructed, the permit states. The marina will be required to have adequate floating containment booms available and absorbent material “in the event of the hydrocarbon spills,” it says. And fuel pumps must have back pressure cutoff valves.

Any required actions that are not complied with would violate the permit and would be “grounds for enforcement action” and suspension or termination of the permit.

Irwin Marine has been a family-run marina for over 134 years. It is open six days a week but the fueling station will be open seven days a week.

This article was originally published in the Feb. 25 – March 3 edition of The Two River Times.