When Highlands County, Florida, needed to upgrade an existing county fueling station to meet new Florida Department of Environmental Protection requirements for underground tanks, county officials planned their renovations with a sustainable future in mind. As a result, the new Avon Park Fuel Site is a unique installation that will give Highlands County the flexibility to keep up with the rapidly changing alternative fuel market.

The county contracted with PBS&J to not only handle the oversight and reclamation associated with the existing tank removal, but also to design a versatile site that could fulfill almost any future county fueling need. The new site contains four separate aboveground double-walled 12,000-gallon tanks which have the ability to store and dispense unleaded, diesel, bio diesel, and the very corrosive ethanol rich fuels up to E-85. Other fuel types can also likely be accommodated with the existing infrastructure as further advances are made in alternative energy. Each tank and dispenser is independently, electronically, and remotely monitored, and the entire system was laid out to maximize accessibility and safety.

The station’s four dispensers can simultaneously fuel six school busses and two fleet vehicles, with potential for future expansion. In anticipation of a future reuse effort, the fuel site has also been designed to accommodate a planned gas production/collection operation at the county’s local landfill. Pads, piping, and electrical services have been provided at the fueling station to distribute compressed natural gas that will be delivered in portable tanks from the landfill site as part of this program.