GASOLINE LEAKS INTO SEWER LINES

More than 1,800 gallons of gasoline that leaked from Spanky's Texaco station has been collected during a cleanup by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

The emergency cleanup began Friday after high levels of petroleum fumes were discovered in Cape Girardeau sewers. The cleanup will continue at least through this week.

"I have never seen that much product in the ground," said Jackson Bostic, environmental emergency specialist with the DNR.

The situation was most serious late Friday night when petroleum levels were "100 percent explosive" in some parts of Cape Girardeau sewers, Bostic said.

Cape Girardeau fire and public works departments took turns flushing sewer lines in an effort to clear the fuel and lower the level of gas vapors. On Tuesday afternoon readings showed no vapors present.

"My first concern is from a safety issue," Bostic said. "We can deal with the environmental issue later."

Spanky's Texaco station, 2201 Broadway, is owned by David Barklage.

The line linking one of the underground tanks to the gas pumps had a hole about the size of a pencil. Each time gas was pumped it escaped into the ground.

The station has two underground tanks. The tanks and remaining fuel lines have been tested and aren't leaking.

Bostic said he has never seen a leak where more free-flowing petroleum was recovered.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,800 gallons of fuel had been pumped and siphoned from the ground into storage tanks. Fuel was still standing in pools under the ground, was visible in well holes and was dripping from a backhoe working at the site.

Barklage said the leak most likely had been slow. "It hadn't shown up on our statistical inventory," he said.

However, the amount of fuel in the tank is measured with a dip stick, which doesn't provide an exact reading.

Tuesday was the deadline for underground fuel tanks to be upgraded or removed. Barklage was in the process of filing an extension for the upgrades. That process continues, he said.

The tank didn't have a line-leak detector, which would have signaled the leak immediately, Bostic said. The detector is also required.

"This is the No. 1 reason the state wants these upgrades done," Bostic said. "I hear a lot of complaints about the expense of doing the upgrades, and it is expensive. But Mr. Barklage could have upgraded two sites for what this cleanup will cost. And that's just looking at the economic impact."

The company will be liable for a minimum of $10,000 toward the cost of cleanup. A typical tank upgrade costs between $20,000 and $40,000.

Barklage has hired a contractor to do the containment work and cleanup.

"We'll spend what it takes to make sure everything is cleaned up and up to code," Barklage said.

The station has been closed since Friday but will be opening as soon as Barklage gets the green light from authorities, perhaps within a few days.

Cape Girardeau Fire Marshal Tom Hinkebein said petroleum fumes were first noticed in a restroom at the Cape Girardeau Vocational-Technical School about two blocks south of the station.

Fumes were traveling through the city's sewer system, and city crews started the process of pinpointing the source of the leak.

Once the source of the petroleum was determined, the DNR dug a trench to stop the flow of fuel into the sewers and surrounding properties. Fuel is being collected in that trench and pumped out. A pump is being installed near the tank to remove additional petroleum.

The petroleum seems to be settling on top of the water table about 18 feet below ground, Bostic said. The fuel floats on water.

Ground samples are being taken throughout the neighborhood to determine how far the fuel traveled.

Hinkebein said fuel leaks happen frequently in the city. This one is distinctive because of the volume of fuel that has been recovered, he said.

"I think that is because we discovered the problem quickly," Hinkebein said. "Other sites have ongoing problems for days or weeks before anyone notices it."