Fuel farm opens at MacArthur Airport

If an emergency shuts down New York tunnels and bridges, Long Island MacArthur Airport now has enough jet fuel on hand to provide for a week's worth of air traffic.

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Islip Town and airport officials unveiled the new jet-fuel storage facility, which triples capacity to 300,000 gallons and brings the airport in line with recent federal, state and Suffolk County requirements to protect groundwater.

Islip Town Supervisor Phil Nolan hailed the facility as another sign of the airport's growing importance as a regional transportation hub and economic engine for Long Island.

The facility is also key because MacArthur is a designated staging area for emergency response in Suffolk County and an alternate to the major metropolitan airports for bringing emergency personnel to the region, officials said. MacArthur's former fuel capacity would have run out of fuel after a day or two.

It cost $6 million to build, but a partnership with Southwest Airlines, which flies about 80 percent of the traffic at MacArthur, means taxpayers did not have to foot the bill.

Southwest paid the upfront cost and is being reimbursed by a town-issued bond. A levy of a few cents per gallon on jet fuel goes to paying off the bond, airport commissioner Teresa Rizzuto said.

Nolan presented Southwest executives with a citation recognizing their ongoing role.

Acknowledging the airline's recent moves to take up landing slots at LaGuardia and Newark, Southwest vice president for fuel management, Rob Myrben, said the facility was further evidence of the carrier's commitment to MacArthur.

The secure facility incorporates the latest technology and design for fuel storage, said Greg Aymong, vice president of Highland Tank, which manufactured the six 50,000-gallon tanks.

Long Island's drinking-water supply, which comes from a single aquifer, was uppermost in mind during the design, he said.

"It's designed to be able to completely contain any drips or spills from entering the environment and polluting the freshwater aquifer that services the community," said Aymong, who invented the special oil-water separator and filtration system.

The filtration system treats all stormwater runoff, removing hydrocarbons.

The water is then tested to meet strict county health department requirements before it drains to the environment.