New Oil Pipeline Planned Through Milwaukee’s South Side
Pipeline ultimately designed to move oil to Green Bay - by barge.
Mitchell Field terminal at 1701 W. College Ave. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
A new, six-mile pipeline through Milwaukee and two suburban communities is part of a $45 million plan to eliminate 25,000 truck trips annually and lower the price of gas in northeast Wisconsin.
U.S. Energy, formerly U.S. Oil, is pursuing construction of the pipeline as part of a larger plan to transport “refined fuel” by barge from Milwaukee to Green Bay, replacing a 120-mile pipeline that was shuttered in 2016.
“It currently takes 92 tanker truck trips daily to meet consumer demand, which not only negatively impacts regional traffic and infrastructure, but also impacts fuel costs,” said Mercedes Bereza, vice president of marketing for U.S. Energy parent U.S. Venture.
The new pipeline would connect a tank farm and terminal at 1701 E. College Ave., across from Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, with the Port of Milwaukee. From U.S. Energy’s existing port facilities, the fuel would be loaded onto barges and transported via Lake Michigan.
The company, which is pursuing state and federal grants for the project, says each barge trip would replace 500 tanker truck trips and save 13,500 gallons of fuel used in transportation.
The new pipeline would be constructed along the Interstate 794 right-of-way, crossing south to north between Cudahy, St. Francis and Milwaukee. It would connect with the existing West Shore Pipe Line Co. system, which links refineries and terminals in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.
Appleton-based U.S. Venture has committed $15 million to the project. A grant pending before the Wisconsin State Legislature would award $10 million if a larger $20 million federal grant is also awarded.
Fuel tanker trucks currently carry fuel between the large Granville Terminal Complex on Milwaukee’s Far Northwest Side and Green Bay. But West Shore’s pipeline once ran north from Granville to Green Bay.
In 2016, West Shore permanently shut down the pipeline, first constructed in 1961, after removing it from service for testing. West Shore said it closed the pipeline after inspectors found “unique conditions that require additional inspections and analysis.” It said no fuel was leaking at the time, but the pipeline was the source of a 54,600-gallon gasoline leak in 2013 that occurred in the Town of Jackson. Since the closure of the pipeline, Green Bay’s waterfront terminals have taken delivery of fuel by barge, but commonly receive fuel by truck.
In 2017, U.S. Venture pledged that it would not ship or handle “crude oil” on its property within the city’s port as part of an amended lease agreement. Its approximately 14-acre port facility, 1626 S. Harbor Dr., can be found in the middle of Jones Island.
The company pays the city more than $200,000 annually in rent, subject to yearly increases, for its land lease and also pays fees to use the liquid cargo pier and other port facilities.
According to a Port Milwaukee spokesperson, if the pipeline runs on state or city-designated right-of-ways and involves only improvements to the company’s existing leased property it would be subject to the normal, non-legislative permitting process.
Photos and Pipeline Network Map
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Would it not make more sense to replace the pipeline West Shore shut down in 2016? That route already exists.
When it was shut down was it removed?
I like how blue the sky is in the”terminal photo” at the beginning of this article. Even though we haven’t been getting much rain lately we also haven’t been getting much of a blue sky, thanks to wildfire smoke related to climate change. Awesome news on the improved pipeline!