ATHOL — Athol’s Board of Selectmen this week approved the installation of gas storage tanks on a lot currently being prepared for development near the Wendy’s restaurant on Templeton Road. While the permit was issued to Athol Templeton LLC, the gas station will be owned by Johnny Kayrouz, a realtor based in Westborough.
Jesse Johnson of Southborough-based Bohler Engineering represented the developer at Tuesday’s meeting. Johnsons said he was there to ask for a license to store petroleum, diesel, and liquid propane at the new, recently-approved gas station project. The gas station project was approved in the fall, and the land cleared for construction.
Johnson used a layout of the lot to show selectmen where the tanks would be placed. Total storage of regular, premium, and diesel gasoline will be nearly 40,000 gallons.
“You have essentially 26,000 gallons of regular,” Johnson explained, “6,000 gallons of premium, and 8,000 of diesel.”
He also pointed out a location where two 1,000-gallon propane tanks would be located.
“The tanks,” he continued, “have been designed in accordance with all the local and state guidelines for safety. We had to submit the plan, obviously, to the local fire department, and we’ll also have to submit to the state to get their approval.”
In response to an inquiry from the board he said current law requires all these tanks to be double-walled plastic. He said, “They don’t allow for metal in the ground anymore, for obvious reasons. They have a liquid, actually, in between those two walls that will sense any type of intrusion from any other liquid that comes in, whether that’s rain water of groundwater from the outside or petroleum from the inside. So, as soon as it penetrates that outer wall an into that liquid, alarms start to go off.”
“They also have alarms on the tanks when they’re filling up,” he continued, “that, when they reach 90 percent capacity, an alarm will go off and tell whoever is filling the tank that they’re getting near capacity – stop. If it does go to 95, it actually shuts everything down. So, it never will exceed 95 percent, and 90 percent is the maximum before alarms start going off.”
Johnson explained that the piping that goes from the storage tanks to the dispensers are also alarmed and equipped with sensors designed to detect any breach in the line.
When asked what brand of gasoline will be sold at the site, Johnson said, “I don’t think that’s been determined yet. I think my client is open to supplying whatever brand he can get the best deal with. He owns multiple locations, but I don’t think he has that contract set yet.”
Board member Rebecca Bialecki said she was pleased the new station would provide another location where large trucks could fill up on diesel, saying such vehicles often create traffic problems in downtown Athol.
“That’s actually the selling point for this location,” Johnson replied. “My client told me if he didn’t have the ability to sell as much diesel as he’s anticipating here it wouldn’t work financially for him. So, we’re expecting a good amount of customers coming for the diesel.”
The board’s vote to approve the permit was unanimous.