GAS SPILL Council seeks action to clean up property

Council passed a motion Tuesday concerning the property.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- Members of village council say gas from a spill at the now closed McQuaids gas station on Main Street was never properly cleaned up and they want something to be done about it.
According to Bill Dunnavant, village councilman, and a letter from the state Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations, the McQuaids station had a gas leak in one of its underground tanks in June 1996. The leak was discovered after gas vapors were detected in a nearby manhole and nearby house.
Nearly two weeks after the leak was discovered, four tanks were removed from the ground at the station and soil samples conducted. Petroleum was found in the samples indicating a leak had occurred.
According to the BUSTR Web site, a mandatory "tightness" test was performed on the tanks to determine whether they are leaking. That test, according to a letter from a BUSTR representative, was performed and showed the leak had occurred.
Dunnavant said monitoring wells were installed a short time later in the ground near the tanks to monitor the amount of gas in the soil, but to his knowledge no other action was taken to clean up any spilled gas.
The BUSTR Web site also says an analysis of drinking water was to be performed within three days on any well potentially affected by the spill and a "site check" to determine if subsurface soils or ground water had been affected in the area.
Remediation
Dunnavant said the owners of the station also should have devised a remedial action plan detailing how the gas would be cleaned up. He said the action plan, water testing and site check were not completed.
"Remediation was done through monitoring wells and bailing the free product from those wells. There are more aggressive ways to do a clean up of this type. To this day they are still bailing product out of those monitoring wells," he said.
Council unanimously passed a motion Tuesday that it hopes will take care of the issue. The motion is to encourage owners of water wells near the defunct gas station to have their wells tested, seek help from county and state representatives and discuss litigation against unnamed parties in order to get the work done.
Nearby wells
Dunnavant said there are 10 wells in the vicinity of the station located on Botsford, Audobon and College streets. Those wells, he said, need to be tested for contamination as soon as possible.
"It cost 150 bucks to test a water well. Test the ones in closest proximity to the station and lets put this to bed," he said.
The Streetscapes committee, a group of citizens involved in various community projects, had plans to turn the property into a community park with money donated from a village family. Dunnavant said remediation plans or contaminated soil should not affect those plans because the surface soil on the site is not affected.