By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
This
Mobil gas station in Richmond, R.I., was at the center of a ’60 Minutes’ story
in the early 1980s about leaking underground fuel tanks. Three decades later,
some 1,300 underground fuel tanks in Rhode Island leak gasoline and other
contaminants. (Tim Faulkner/ecoRI News)
RICHMOND,
R.I. — The story of Canob Park is a nearly forgotten one today, but in 1983 the
neighborhood received national attention, when “60 Minutes,” the most popular
show on TV at the time, featured the plight of a local neighborhood. The intent
was to highlight an emerging environmental problem: hundreds of thousands of
aging and leaking underground gas tanks and a lack of environmental regulations
to address the threat.
The
Canob Park story had the important elements of a good pollution drama: an
intimidating big corporation, a local government too scared to shut down a
polluter and helpless residents dealing with well water contaminated by
gasoline.
In
the rural village of Wyoming, leaking tanks from a Mobil gas station were
polluting home drinking water in the nearby Canob Park neighborhood. An Exxon
station directly across the street also was suspected of leaking gas.
The problems in the Canob Park neighborhood began in 1969 and still weren’t resolved after the “60 Minutes” report aired 14 years later. The national publicity, however, did increase awareness about the risks of leaking underground gas tanks, which helped lead to Congress passing new regulations in 1984 and a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program being created in 1985.
Improvements,
though, were slow to take hold across the country, and in Canob Park. Decades
of incremental fixes led to modest progress. But the local Mobil station
featured in the “60 Minutes” report continues to operate, while a full cleanup
never occurred, nor an assessment of the environmental damage done.
Rhode
Island has 1,544 underground fuel tanks in use today, according to state
Department of Environmental Management (DEM) data. The state also has
1,374 underground fuel tanks with leaking issues, including 155 active tanks
and 1,219 inactive ones. The state inspects about 400 tanks annually, and eight
new leaks were reported last year. The Rhode Island clean-up program is funded
through a 1-cent gas tax.
Despite
these persistent leaking problems, it’s still safer to bury the tanks than to
keep them above ground, said Sofia Kaczor, principal environmental scientist
for DEM’s underground storage tank management program.
But
there are risks. “Good maintenance
is the key,” Kaczor said. “Everything is buried underground. It’s hard to
identify the problems when everything is underground.”
Fred
Stanley, fire chief for the Hope Valley Wyoming Fire District, was on the job
when the Canob Park story broke and is quoted in the “60 Minutes” report. He
recently told ecoRI News that the EPA’s initial response was inadequate and
that the TV coverage did help increase awareness.
“We
didn’t have any local authority,” said Stanley, 79, who retires in June. “There
were no laws like they have today. All of the regulations came out of the mess
over there (in Canob Park).”
ecoRI
News contacted the EPA and ExxonMobil. Neither responded.
A
former Exxon gas station across from the Mobil station also reportedly had
leaking tanks, but wasn’t directly linked to the Canob Park contamination. A
Walgreens has since replaced the Exxon station.
The
area around the gas station and former gas station is an environmentally
sensitive wetland with nearby ponds. Richmond is at the base of the largest
aquifer in the state.
While
business advocacy groups complain of environmental overregulation, there were
no regulations allowing the DEM to take action against Mobil. Today, DEM has a
full-time program for monitoring underground fuel tanks.
The
Canob Park saga began in June 1968 with the construction of a new Mobil gas
station just off Exit 3 at the I-95 interchange. Almost immediately, gasoline
odors were detected in the station’s restroom and from the water fountain.
For
all of the homes and businesses in the village of Wyoming, well water was the
primary water source. Mobil made repairs to a connection pipe to one of its
five underground fuel tanks, but the odors persisted. An audit by Mobil found
that 2,529 gallons of gasoline were lost during the first eight months of the
station’s opening.
Three
months later, Mobil installed a carbon water filter at the station to address
the odor issue.
In
1970, less than a half-mile away on Canob Lane, two residents complained of
gasoline in their water. The state Department of Health confirmed the odor but
determined that the water was safe to drink. An independent laboratory found
trace amounts of gasoline in the wells.
Rather
than find the source, Mobil installed carbon water filters at both homes. Three
months later, a third home tested positive for gasoline in its well water.
Mobil drilled new wells for three of the homes and bottled water was delivered
to residents.
In
1971, gasoline was found in wells used by the gas station. Two years later,
three more homes detected gas in their well water.
It
wasn’t until a decade later, in 1981, that a leak was found in one of the
station’s underground tanks. Three of the fuel tanks were replaced. In 1982,
the EPA launched a study. It was eventually determined that a plume of leaked
gasoline had migrated underground from the Mobil station, contaminating the
neighboring groundwater supply.
In
1983, Mobil agreed to then-Gov. Joseph Garrahy’s request to help fund a
municipal water system. In 1985, a groundwater treatment system was installed
and 350 gallons of contaminated water were removed from a recovery well. That
same year, damage was reported to one tank and all were removed, along with 100
yards of contaminated soil.
The
year before, 251 yards of contaminated soil had been removed and an underground
waste oil tank replaced. In 1991, DEM issued a notice of violation and Mobil
paid a $44,450 penalty for failing to test between 1986 and 1991. More wells
for monitoring and cleanup were installed.
In
1994, a small hole was found in a gas tank, resulting in four gas tanks being
removed. A groundwater treatment and recovery system was installed, along with
three new underground tanks.
Currently,
quarterly testing is ongoing at both sites.
There
are still some 74,000 leaking underground fuel tanks across the country,
according to the EPA.