Superintendent Jack Smith Wants 750 Gallons of Propane in Tanks Next to Bleachers at Watkins Mill HS. What Could Go Wrong?

Nothing could go wrong with having 750 gallons of propane in tanks next to the bleachers at Watkins Mill High School.  

Unless there was a leak in one of the tanks.  But, that never happens.  

Except when it does.

Superintendent Jack R. Smith wants propane tanks next to the Watkins Mill High School bleachers to appease cell tower companies.  Public school land is all about providing really cheap land to cell tower companies, correct?  Therefore a plan to give more land to a private, commercial company is a great use of dedicated, taxpayer paid for, public school land, correct?

AT&T has filed an application with the Montgomery County Tower Committee to EXPAND the cell tower site at Watkins Mill High School and to add another propane tank and another cell tower compound next to the bleachers on the football field.  The application is shown below.

The Montgomery County Tower Committee meets TODAY at 2PM to approve this plan.  The public is not allowed to speak or comment on these applications.   But you can see from the link to the Tower Committee that the vendor, AT&T, will be allowed to present an entire power point presentation!  The public will not be able to speak or present so much as a Post-it Note.

The propane tanks have what is known as a spark radius as shown on this image from the AT&T application filed with the Montgomery County Tower Committee.

We assume that is the area around each tank where a spark could ignite the tank in the event of a leak.  Both of the tanks will have a spark radius that extends in to the open space by the bleachers as shown by the red lines on the image above.

Hopefully no one will smoke, vape or light anything up behind the bleachers.

Here is a picture from Google Earth showing the exact location of the new propane tank and the new cell tower compound next to the Watkins Mill High School bleachers. 

Wheaton High School football field from Google Earth

In the event that Watkins Mill High School were to be rebuilt at some time in the future the cell tower compound would then dictate the location of any construction on the site.  As we know from Wheaton High School, when a cell tower and associated compound are on school land they never move.  The Board of Education is happy to simply build around cell towers and their compounds, even if the resulting construction means the cell tower is smack up against the new school building.  

Wheaton High School today from Google Earth

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