Options Sought on Dealing with Increased Ethanol Truck Traffic

DUMFRIES, Va. — Increased truck traffic with tankers carrying ethanol has become an issue facing commuters, residents, and Dumfries town officials and residents.

The trucks would travel from U.S. 1 in Dumfries to the winding, 2-lane Possum Point Road to a Nustar Energy facility on the connecting Cockpit Point Road.

On Possum Point Road, residents’ homes line the street. On U.S. 1, traffic is already congested, and the increased truck traffic would mean at least 50 trucks per day traveling in and out of the town.

“You bring the word ‘ethanol ‘in, and you say increased traffic, and then it becomes a viable topic of conversation,” said Dumfries Mayor Jerry Foreman at a recent transportation summit held with members of town staff and officials, Virginia Department of Transportation officials, and a company representative from NuStar who asked Potomac Local News not to name him in our story.

Prince William County officials announced last year that the NuStar Energy facility would begin offloading ethanol — used to fuel vehicles — from trains, and then put it on trucks for delivery. Since the plant was built in 1978 and originally used as a concrete facility, a NuStar company representative said the facility has always stored petrol products.

Prince William County officials told NuStar that the company must apply for a special use permit, and have it approved, before ethanol can be transported from the facility. NuStar is currently appealing that decision.

Nearby where trucks would travel, a new road — Potomac Shores Parkway — is planned. It will connect commuters with a new neighborhood of nearly 4,000 new homes in a neighborhood under construction along the Potomac River near Dumfries, called Potomac Shores. The new parkway would intersect near Possum Point Road, at U.S. 1 and Va. 234.

Foreman has called for connecting Cockpit Point Road to what will be a wider Potomac Shores Parkway and allowing the trucks to travel along that road and avoid the narrow 2-lane Possum Point Road.

A NuStar company representative told Foreman he had no opinion on the plan.

As for officials at VDOT, they said it may be too late in the initial design process of Potomac Shores Parkway to add a connection.

“I don’t know how far you can go since Potomac Shores has already gone through the public involvement process [for the Potomac Shores Parkway design]. Even if the applicant would want to go forward with that, the public may have some issues with that plan,” said VDOT’s Maria Sinner.

Along with nearly 4,000 new homes, Potomac Shores will also have three public schools and a host of soccer fields and other parks drawing children and families to the area, according to plans released by Calif.-based Potomac Shores developer SunCal.

“Knowing the public’s reaction to truck traffic, that is not something the public is likely to endorse,” added Sinner.