A Trillium fueling system in the process of installation.
When was the last time you
heard "gas station" and
"environmentally-friendly" in the same sentence?
Trillium Fueling Systems,
Burlington, Ontario, entered the marketplace
last year with an innovative and
environmentally-friendly gas station
concept that is creating waves in the industry.
The Trillium Fueling System is
completely above ground – no risk of
spills or leaking into the soil, and no
problem with site remediation if the location
changes.
With many site remediation problems
in the news, and government soil remediation
guidelines, small chain and independent
gas station owners may worry
about expanding or moving locations.
These owners also watch the value of
their site, often a huge part of their retirement
savings, decrease significantly
if the land is to be used for anything
other than a gas station. Underground
tanks depreciate the value of land and
severely limit options if selling or re-locating. The Trillium Fueling
System, however, maintains the
value of property and leaves
choices wide open.
Brian Villemaire is an Industrial
Practitioner with Royal
LePage Commercial Inc. He is
also an expert on brownfield/redevelopment
projects and a respected
lecturer at the University
of Waterloo. “I think this product
is a huge benefit for society.
It's forward thinking and considers
the environment. But it also
makes sense from the gas station
owner's perspective. Do you
know how many clients I've had
whose retirement savings were wiped
out because their site and property
wasn't saleable?
“If the purchaser requires financing,
and most purchasers do, the lending institution
will not finance a deal with a
dirty site. And the retiring owner can't
afford to clean the site. Retirement
funds will literally be wiped out no matter
what they do,” he said.
There isn't legislation or aid to help
people who face that daunting task of
site clean-up – yet. In fact, in current
legislation, liability for brownfield sites
is determined by ownership, even if the
owner had nothing to do with the contamination.
It's the "little guys" like independent
gas station owners that
Villemaire feels for, and a part of the
reason he is lobbying for Bill 56 in
Ottawa to specifically address brownfield
issues and the accompanying liability
issues.
“Big companies have site remediation
down to an art,” adds Villemaire.
“They come in and out and the site is
ready to go. Small chains and independents
face roughly $20,000 just for engineering
services to completely test and
report on the soil conditions. And what
if the news is bad? The owner faces a
huge clean-up bill. There has to be a better
answer than covering the site in asphalt.
What kind of long-term thinking
is that?”
“To tell the truth, portability was my
inspiration for coming up with the whole
aboveground gas station concept,” admits
Phil Andree, President of Trillium
Fueling Systems. “But once we started
to explore the idea, the positive environmental
impact that these stations can
make soon became crystal clear. As easy
as they are to install, they are just as easy
to take apart and move. And what's left
behind? Saleable land instead of the
huge headaches associated with buried
tanks.”
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