A 16-mile pipeline that would carry jet fuel from the Kaskaskia River in rural St. Clair County to Scott Air Force Base is a feasible project, according to a new study.
The Kaskaskia Regional Port District and its engineering partners concluded in the recent $350,000 study that building the pipeline would provide multiple benefits compared to trucking in jet fuel to the airbase, said Ed Weilbacher, the district’s general manager.
“The question then becomes: Now, how do we take it to the next step?” he said.
The study’s affirmation of the pipeline, which backers believe is essential to ensuring the federal government keeps the military base open long term, means the port district and engineering firms working on the pipeline will now turn their attention to funding its first phase.
“It's an exciting project that's going to help sustain the St. Clair County and the entire southwest Illinois area,” said Tony Schenk, a project manager at Gonzalez Cos., a national civil engineering firm with an office in Belleville.
The impetus for the pipeline, or an alternative method to get jet fuel onto the base, dates back to when the Department of Defense considered realigning or closing Scott in the 1990s and 2000s. A commission identified two key concerns regarding the Air Force base: the length of the runway and the way fuel was transported onto the base.
While criticized because of the cost to taxpayers, constructing the longer runways at neighboring MidAmerica St. Louis Airport satisfied the first portion of the committee's concern, advocates argue. However, the jet fuel inefficiencies have lingered for decades.
“You have to plan ahead,” Weilbacher said. “And planning ahead might be 20 years, and in the military’s case, they might be looking at 50 years for what their needs are.”
Overall, the project is expected to cost roughly $68 million and take five to seven years to complete, Weilbacher and Schenk said.
The feasibility study identified a corridor for the pipeline that crosses the Kaskaskia River near Fayetteville, where it then runs north to the east of Mascoutah and ends at MidAmerica. The jet fuel will be supplied to the airport, the National Guard and the Air Force.
A lengthy environmental study and nailing down land use will provide some of the biggest challenges to make the pipeline a reality in the next phases. It’s expected that the environmental study required by the federal government will take three years to complete.
Backers hope the port district can use easements, or an agreement to use someone else's land for a specific purpose, instead of buying the land. The eight-inch steel pipeline would be buried, and it would provide minimum disruption to the farmland it’s planned to run through.
“It should be a very low-risk type of pipeline compared to other pipelines,” Weilbacher said.
The study confirmed the pipeline would provide some distinct advantages to the current method. First, a pipeline is a safer and more reliable way to transport jet fuel than trucking in the fuel, supporters said.
“We're not in an urbanized area; we're out in the open,” Schenk said. “We are away from everything, and we're taking those fuel trucks that pass schools and hospitals off of the roads.”
Second, the pipeline opens up the market and adds redundancy for the military. Instead of trucking in fuel from Sauget or Indianapolis, the airport and military can barge in shipments of fuel from other sources. The trucking can remain as a backup, Weilbacher said.
Third, this project will add extra storage on both ends of the pipeline.
The first phase, which consists of drafting preliminary designs, determining environmental compliance, figuring out land rights and a public vetting process, will cost an estimated $3 million. The Kaskaskia Regional Port District and partners on the project hope to hear back sometime this fall on whether it qualifies for grant funding from the Illinois Department of Transportation.
A second phase would finalize all of those designs and the land deals. The final phase would be construction. Weilbacher said a plethora of public grants will be explored to fund the project.
“It’s a matter of how do you get it funded. How do you move it forward?” he said. “Those are always the magic things that have to come together — and you never know.”
