Center Appeals Decision Allowing Oil Lightering in Delaware Coastal Zone

On December 6, 2006, the Center, on behalf of the Delaware Nature Society, appealed a decision of the Delaware Coastal Zone Industrial Control Board (CZICB) allowing Vane Line Bunkering, Inc. to start up an oil lightering operation in the Delaware Bay.  Oil lightering involves the transfer of oil from large oil tankers to smaller barges so that the tankers can then navigate up the Delaware River to reach refineries, and obviously poses risks of spills and pollution.  The Secretary of DNREC originally banned the project as a new bulk product transfer facility under Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act, but the CZICB reversed, finding that, because oil lightering was occurring at the time the Act was passed, the activity of oil lightering was “grandfathered” under the Act as a nonconforming use, and thus Vane could start up its new lightering operation 35 years after the Act had been passed.  Sensing that the notion of pre-existing activities being “grandfathered” would open the door to oil refineries and other heavy industries in the coastal zone, the Center filed an appeal on behalf of the Delaware Nature Society.  The legal briefing of this case is underway.