The approximately $60 million project at Kinder Morgan Liquid Terminals calls for the addition of a new gasoline/ethanol blending system and storage facility, according to Kevin Golankiewicz, northeast regional manager of Kinder Morgan.
Golankiewicz said the seven blending tanks will allow for about 1.035 million barrels of storage, making the Carteret facility the energy giant’s second-largest liquids terminal, ranking behind only a company facility in Texas.
Golankiewicz said he expects three of the tanks to be completed by early next summer and the remaining four to be done by the end of 2011.
Work on the project, he said, began early this past summer. He estimated that it was about 15 percent completed as of Monday.
Mayor Daniel Reiman said the project was first presented to borough officials in 2008 and received Planning Board approval last January. In March, Carteret and Kinder Morgan officials signed off on a redevelopment agreement allowing the company to use about 14 acres of brownfields along Peter J. Sica Memorial Highway.
Carteret expects to receive $30.2 million in tax revenue over the course of the 30-year agreement, Reiman said. Between 75 and 100 construction jobs have been created as a result of the project, according to Golankiewicz.
Working with the state Department of Environmental Protection, Kinder Morgan — Carteret’s largest taxpayer — has treated and either recycled or removed over 22,000 tons of contaminated soil left by Brite Clean, the former tenants of the site, Reiman said.
He added that redevelopment fees have provided $1 million toward construction of the borough’s upcoming Health and Wellness Center, slated to be completed early next year.
The agreement also calls for Kinder Morgan to fund $300,000 worth of off-site aesthetic roadway improvements on Peter J. Sica Memorial Highway, Reiman said.