Contractors remove damaged gasoline dispensers at Bahr’s Landing on Sunday. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
No gasoline or diesel fuel leaked into the Shrewsbury River and surrounding waterways when “a real nasty sheet of ice” damaged a boat-fueling dock at Bahr’s Landing Marina in Highlands last month, a representative of the owner tells redbankgreen.
“Every few years – I would say it hasn’t happened in about 12 or 13 years – sheets of ice will come in from Sandy Hook Bay on a good high tide and cause all kinds of havoc to our docks,” said Jay Cosgrove, whose parents own the waterfront marina and seafood restaurant.
“This one really did a number more than usual,” he said. “The ice came in, snapped a bunch a pilings, knocked a few things over.”
Cosgrove said the ice damaged three fuel dispensers, which are fed by underground tanks beneath the marina parking lot. But “zero” fuel went into the waterway, he said, because emergency shutoff valves did what they were designed to do.
“That all worked as devised, so that was good,” he said. “It was amazing. It all kind of happened before our eyes.”
The state Department of Environmental Protection and the Coast Guard were notified about the incident, Cosgrove said, “but it wasn’t an issue.”
The dock, though, had just undergone final repairs and upgrades necessitated by Hurricane Sandy 15 months ago, Cosgrove said. The fueling station was rebuilt, and after the end of last summer, the electrical and plumbing systems were redone, including the installation of a self-serve feature that enabled boaters to gas up at any hour and pay by credit card.
Cosgrove said he expects to have the rebuilt fueling station in operation by mid-March.
