Underground Storage Tank Replacement Project Begins at the Harbor

Source: City of Santa Barbara

The fuel dock at Santa Barbara Harbor is an important and busy place. On any given day dozens of fishing vessels, workboats, sailboats, and power boats tie up to fill up with gasoline and diesel. Without the fuel dock, most maritime operations out of our harbor would come to a screeching halt.

The underground storage tanks (UST) that supply the fuel dock are located just west of 125 Harbor Way and southeast of the Fish Market. The four tanks, installed in 1983, are single-walled which are more prone to leaks than newer, double-walled tanks. In fact, the Health and Safety Code was recently amended requiring replacement of all existing single-walled UST with double-walled USTs by 2025.

To comply with the code, Santa Barbara Fuel Dock, Inc. (a subsidiary of McCormix Oil Corporation), began preparing a plan to replace their four existing single-walled 10,000 gallon UST with two 20,000 gallon doublewalled UST.

After a lot of work and public outreach, the Underground Fuel Storage Tank Replacement project started in February 2020 but it was soon halted due to the discovery of an unknown electrical utility line adjacent to the existing UST. The utility line has since been relocated and the project will restart on March 08, 2021 and wrap up around May 20, 2021.

During the project there will be no public parking in the red and yellow construction zones (see map), vehicular access in and through this area will be limited to operations essential to maintaining our working harbor. The Yacht Club Parking Lot will be accessible to members only. All harbor businesses will be accessible via foot traffic during the project, and fuel will be delivered by trucks to boats at the City Pier.

For more information, call
McCormick Oil Corporation – project owner (805) 963-9366
Parking Office – parking & traffic control (805) 564-5534
Waterfront Facilities (805) 654-5527