Airport tanks a move for safety

If a big emergency were to strike Long Island -- like a hurricane -- we would all like to think we are really, really ready. But catastrophe can expose readiness gaps fast. So every bit of preparedness, like a new jet-fuel facility at Long Island MacArthur Airport, is welcome news.

Living on an island, we depend heavily on goods arriving here by truck through the bridges and tunnels in the City of New York. If anything closed them, those goods would have to fly into MacArthur, the designated distribution point for Suffolk County. And the planes carrying them would need jet fuel.

Now MacArthur's operator, the Town of Islip, and its chief carrier, Southwest Airlines, have tripled the size of the fuel storage, to 300,000 gallons. That's enough for a full week of flights, a potentially critical reserve.

In the process, they have moved the tanks from underground to above ground, to better prevent leaks into our aquifers. Now that it's out in the open, the new $6 million facility is guarded and secure from terrorists.

The facility includes features to make sure no jet fuel or pollutant-laden water get into the groundwater. And it has a water treatment system and tanks to hold the treated water until it meets state standards to be returned safely to the ground.

It may seem a tiny precaution, but if worse comes to worst and we need that fuel to keep our supplies moving -- or evacuate our injured -- we'll be glad that Islip and Southwest added this small bit of readiness.