THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT

The Waterfront Protection Ordinance, officially introduced in June, would amend the South Portland zoning ordinance to specify that permitted petroleum-related uses include the unloading of petroleum products from ships docking in South Portland. The amendment would also limit the enlargement or expansion of existing petroleum facilities.

TAR SANDS OIL

So-called “tar sands” oil is a raw form of petroleum found underground in a mixture of water and sand. At room temperature, the substance has the consistency of cold molasses and therefore must be diluted with a bevy of volatile organic chemicals before it may be pumped through a pipeline. Vast deposits of the substance have been known to lie under the Alberta wilderness since the 1930s. The Alberta government says that proven reserves equal about 170.8 billion barrels of crude oil, most of which is locked up in oil sands. For years, the form of petroleum was too expensive to extract and process to be profitable.

IMPACT

The possible effects of the ordinance have been hotly debated. Proponents say the ordinance is narrowly drafted to prevent the conversion of one of the city’s large oil import terminals into an export terminal for Canadian tar sands oil. Opponents, however, say there is no plan to export tar sands oil through the city and that the language of the ordinance would restrict operations at other terminals that have nothing to do with the Canadian oil.