A piece of legislation critical to the liquid terminal industry was tucked into the omnibus spending and coronavirus relief bill passed by the Senate near midnight yesterday. While the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 will not get the attention of some of the other measures in the relief bill, its passage is extremely important to the terminal industry because WRDA funds the maintenance, construction and improvement of our nation’s harbors, inland waterways and ports. Water infrastructure is critical to facilitate the trade we will require to help our economy recover and position the nation for long-term growth. 

As you are laying out that plate of cookies for Santa or decorating a gingerbread house with the kids, we hope you remember the role of storage tanks in your holiday baking. In an earlier edition of the Think Tank, we featured some sweet holiday recipes that use molasses. 

As we approach the holiday season, it is easy to overlook the role of tank terminals in our family gatherings. Most people if they think about bulk liquid storage tanks at all, think they only house petroleum goods or chemical. But the truth is that a lot of what we eat passes through such facilities as well!  Many liquid agricultural goods, like molasses, dairy products, high fructose corn syrup and more find their way through liquid terminals at some point in their journey to market. In today's blog, you'll find some of our favorite savory holiday recipes featuring molasses.

ILTA has been hard at work continuing the push to get an Environmental Protection Agency proposal on in-service tank inspections across the finish line. The proposal, on which ILTA submitted comments on November 30, would allow operators of tanks regulated under the New Source Performance Standards of Subpart Kb to use the in-service inspection requirements of Subpart WW to conduct periodic inspections of internal floating roof rim seals.  

Welcome to ILTA’s new blog, the Think Tank! We are launching this blog to provide a forum to highlight the liquid terminal industry and its importance to the U.S. and world economy. We will discuss the products stored and handled by liquid terminals, as well as about safety, security and environmental responsibility.