Merrick Boat Fueling Station Gets Town Green Light

HEMPSTEAD, NY — The Town of Hempstead approved a special exemption Tuesday that will allow for a new boat fueling station to open up at the Whaleneck Marina in Merrick.

Approved unanimously by the board, the boat fueling station was presented by East Williston-based attorney Kevin O’Brien — himself the owner of a 17-foot boat, he told the board.

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“This is an application…for, basically, a fueling operation at an existing marina,” O’Brien said. “The property is located at 3000 Whaleneck Dr. in Merrick, it’s the west side of Whaleneck drive, and it’s approximately 285 feet north of Bayberry Avenue.”

O’Brien said Whaleneck has been operating as a marina for at least 70 years, with the largest boat currently docked there coming in at about 50 feet. The goal of this application, the attorney said, is to reinstall a pair of underground gasoline storage tanks to allow for boat fueling at the Merrick location. An application was filed back in 1949 for similar tanks, O’Brien said, albeit to store fishing equipment instead of boat fuel.

Over the years, regulations changed and tanks were removed, before an application was submitted around Hurricane Sandy to remove the tanks, O’Brien said. New ownership at the marina, O’Brien said, seeks to open this filling station to serve motor fuel and diesel to Great South Bay boaters during the summertime boating season.

“We’re seeing less and less marinas, less and less places to get gas on the water,” O’Brien said. “Really, the specific nature of this application is to reintroduce two underground gasoline storage tanks for fueling boats. There are going to be two, 12,000-gallon underground gasoline storage tanks, double-walled, meeting all the criteria that’s required.”

O’Brien noted that the applicants had reviewed the plan with the county health department — which approves or denies tank applications on the Department of Environmental Conservation’s behalf — and the county had approved this plan.

“Operationally, we’re proposing three dispensers to be located at the south side of the property. That’s where the tanks and the fueling positions would be located, those fueling positions would be manned while they’re operational,” O’Brien said. “Operationally, we’re probably looking at from dawn to dusk, realistically, when they’d be operating. The marina is open to boat owners all throughout the day and the evening…but the actual fuel dock itself would only be open during those hours of operation.”

O’Brien told the board there would be trained personnel dispensing the fuel once the boat fueling is underway, with the marina closing up between November and December before reopening in the spring. The facility, he said, wouldn’t be a place for boats to be trailered into the water, but instead for boats to pull up and refuel.

One question raised by the town board related to groundwater protections. O’Brien said there are automatic shutoffs and sensors between the two walls of the tanks being proposed that would sound alarms “if the tank sneezed.” The applicants have put precautions in place, O’Brien said, and will also have to pass regular inspections with the county.

“If we don’t meet any of those inspections they shut us down,” O’Brien said. “Because are a sole-source aquifer, it’s extremely important to us as people, as residents of the Town of Hempstead, and the state has acknowledged that.”

O’Brien told the board that the plan right now is to service solely “pleasure craft,” but said the applicants would be open to servicing municipal vessels from the town or county if need arose.

During public comment, Baldwin resident Leslie Martin said the proposed fueling station was being embraced among boating community groups.

“There are other gas stations; there’s one in Freeport and Seaford, but there aren’t that many of them,” Martin said. “You have a lot of boaters out there, and it gives you more flexibility. Whaleneck is a little off the beaten path, but I think any boater would appreciate it.”

Merrick resident Marcia DiTieri asked if anyone would be monitoring the filling station during the closed hours in the summer months, to which O’Brien said there are electronic monitors in place and locks that would be placed on the filling stations.

After public comment closed, the board voted and approved the special exception to allow for the fueling. O’Brien said the property owners are eager to get the fueling station up and running, noting that the summer boating season is right around the corner.

“Any boaters out there, we’re looking forward to seeing you,” O’Brien said.