It’s been about a year and a half since an 80-mile spur of motor fuel pipeline in Western Virginia was shut down by its owners. But for one Bedford County town, there’s a constant reminder of the commerce that moved through the area for more than 50 years.
Montvale is a small community, around 700 people, but many pass through it between Lynchburg and Roanoke. Drivers still see a number of the large tanks that served Colonial Pipeline for nearly 60 years.
In 2017, the company determined its motor fuel line beneath those tanks wasn’t worth an estimated hundreds of millions in necessary repairs. It shut it down a year later.
Now, gasoline is shipped through the region by truck, coming to Western Virginia from Richmond and Greensboro, North Carolina. Five other companies still own those tanks in Montvale- and pay staff to monitor those sites, even though no fuel is being pumped through them.
David Miles is the Regional Petroleum Manager for Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality.
He says as long as each company maintains environmental permits, they can operate the tanks - without actually storing product.
“We have worked with them to do what’s practical as far as interim measures for how much time they have to have personnel there, what type of visual monitoring is required?” he said. “Is it daily, weekly, (or) monthly?”
But Miles says at some point, those companies have a long-term decision to make, noting state regulations of these tanks have no middle ground.
“You either have a tank that has the capacity to store, and is considered active and operational, whether it has anything in it or not,” he said. “Or, it’s permanently closed, meaning it’s dismantled to the point where it can’t receive and store product.”
There are some based in the area that aren’t ready to give up on Colonial re-considering its decision – rather than seeing these companies have to consider the costly option of dismantling the tanks.
“That pipeline covers 80 miles across the state of Virginia – it’s an asset that needs to be utilized,” says Bob Davis, who sits on the Bedford County Board of Supervisors.
“I agree with him, 100%,” said Bob Davis, who’s president of the local water supply company. “I mean, we’ve got the tanks here, they’ve been here for years. If they want to move them out completely, that’s going to hurt Montvale even worse, because of the mess that’s going to be left behind.”
Davis also cites Montvale’s proximity to Interstate 81, and being along a rural highway.
“Being able to transfer the fuel – here and there - off of 460 made great sense, if Bedford County wanted jobs, I mean, get it back up and running.”
Bedford County Administrator Robert Hiss says he’s been in touch with the five tank operators in Montvale. He says three of them planned to cease operations there, while two others would consider other opportunities.
“They have invested in their facilities that they would like to continue to use," he said. "It’s always worthwhile having those conversations with Colonial, but at the same time, as a community, Montvale, and Bedford County, I think we need to come up with a Plan B."
Radio IQ reached out to those five companies, and received statements from two of them.
Tulsa, OK based Magellan Terminals Holdings responded with: “The terminal is currently idled due to the fact that the incoming pipeline is no longer delivering product. As with all of Magellan’s assets we continue to look for opportunities to best utilize the facility.”
A spokesman for Texas-based Motiva Enterprises said “Due to Colonial Pipeline’s shutdown of Line 25 in September 2018, we have ceased operations of the terminal and are currently working with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to close all operating permits. We will continue to maintain the property while in idle status.”
Montvale resident Melody Divers and her husband Johnny own and operate Chapel Creek Farms, growing apples and other fruits, and selling cider in Montvale.
“When you hear ‘Tanktown’, to be quite honest, it’s almost a term of endearment,” she said. Divers says the closure of the fuel line hasn’t had any impact on her family’s business, or dampened enthusiasm for others in her town.
“We’re from the school of thought of, there are some things you can change, and some things you can’t change,” she said. “So we start intrinsically, and that’s a good idea for the community – so what can we do ourselves? We can work hard, we can educate about what’s here in Montvale, we can work on our marketing, our connections. Those are things that we can take care of.”
Bedford County Supervisor Bob Davis says he’s reached out to Congressman Denver Riggleman, while County Administrator Robert Hiss has been in touch with Congressman Ben Cline, hoping they might help interest Colonial in re-starting the pipeline.
In a statement provided to Radio IQ, Colonial said: “Colonial Pipeline continuously evaluates opportunities to meet market demand and best serve our customers, the shippers on the Colonial system.
Colonial’s highest priority is the safe operation of our pipeline system. Therefore, we also thoroughly evaluate the condition of our pipeline. Line 25 was taken out of service because the long-term cost to maintain the pipeline to our standard of excellence cannot be justified economically.
At this time, we have no plans to restart Line 25 in the Montvale area. We remain in contact with local elected officials as they evaluate options to best meet the needs of the area.”
