NGL Energy Partners is still seeking a new site for a liquefied petroleum gas depot in southern Maine after the state acquired the company’s leased distribution site in Portland and the city of South Portland rejected the company’s plans to build a new facility at Rigby Yard.

The Maine Department of Transportation acquired NGL’s depot site on Commercial Street in Portland to make way for the ongoing expansion of the International Marine Terminal near the Casco Bay Bridge.

NGL, a Tulsa, Oklahoma, company that includes Brunswick-based Downeast Energy, has vacated its rail-side depot on Commercial Street and started decommissioning the site, said Kevin Fitzgerald, NGL’s regional operations manager.

Delivery trucks that previously loaded propane at the Portland facility are now loading at existing facilities in Auburn and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Fitzgerald said. NGL isn’t transloading propane directly from railroad tank cars into propane delivery trucks, he said.

NGL continues to look for a site in southern Maine to build a new propane depot to serve a growing customer base of 50,000 homes and businesses in the region.

“Development of a new, state-of-the-art facility in southern Maine will help NGL safely and efficiently serve our customers and meet that demand,” Fitzgerald said in a written statement.

NGL withdrew plans to develop a depot at Rigby Yard in South Portland in March, after struggling for more than a year to win approval from city officials and the community at large. The city had already rejected two previous proposals since NGL first applied to build a $3 million propane depot at the rail yard.

Opponents of NGL’s South Portland proposal said it would pose a public safety threat to commercial and residential properties near the 245-acre rail yard, which is between the Thornton Heights and Cash Corner neighborhoods. Local fire officials vouched for the company’s plans to make the depot safe, noting that as many as 100 rail cars loaded with propane pass through Rigby Yard daily with little local security or oversight.

At the time NGL withdrew its plans, the City Council was considering – and subsequently approved – a controversial fire code amendment that requires a 1,257-foot buffer between important public facilities and proposed propane distribution plants. The buffer would have blocked NGL’s proposal because of its proximity to the Cash Corner Fire Station, but it appeared that a large section of the rail yard was open to development of a propane depot.

In forcing NGL to leave the Portland site, the Maine Department of Transportation has promised to cover the company’s cost of building a new depot elsewhere, said Nate Moulton, director of rail programs. NGL had 37 years remaining on  a long-term lease for the site on Commercial Street.

Moulton said there’s a negotiated $3 million maximum that the state will pay for the move. NGL is responsible for finding a new location for its depot.

“They are making other arrangements,” Moulton said.

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