NORFOLK, Va. -- State inspectors have discovered high levels of ethanol in gasoline at some Hampton Roads gas stations, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture & Consumer Affairs (VDACS), which has received approximately 100 complaints, prompting officials to investigate gas stations in Isle of Wight, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Suffolk, said an Associated Press report.
Elaine Lidholm, a spokesperson for the department, told WVEC-TV that an investigation revealed ethanol levels from 16% to 50% at some local gas stations. The limit is 10%, according [image-nocss] to the report. She said most gas station managers are voluntarily shutting off the pumps and replacing the bad fuel.
Consumers reported vehicle breakdowns after getting fuel at a BJs Wholesale Club in Virginia Beach on June 5 and June 6. A spokesperson for BJs told the news outlet that its supplier alerted them that there could be high levels of ethanol in the fuel Wednesday June 10. She said tests showed normal levels of ethanol, but BJs still emptied and refilled the fuel at the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake locations as a precaution, said the report.
Last week, a Farm Fresh grocery store station in Smithfield also drained its tanks after ethanol concerns, the report added. The Fuel Express in Smithfield was the only Farm Fresh gas station that seemed to be having problems, added a report by The Daily Press. According to the company press release cited by the newspaper, the station closed and had the high-ethanol fuels removed from its 25,000-gallon storage tanks. The station reopened with a new supply of fuel.
The state said investigators are still trying to find out how the extra ethanol got into the gasoline. It will not release the names of the gas stations being inspected until the investigation is complete.
Lindholm said the agency will inspect stations listed in the complaints in an attempt to track down the source of the bad gasoline.
"We have documented cases at the gas station level where ethanol levels were high, and in some cases, excessively high. We are doing tracebacks from the retail level to determine if there is a single source for the problem such as a terminal, and if/when we do that, we will try to determine what caused the problem: human error, equipment malfunction, negligence, etc.," she told CSP Daily News.
"We first became aware of the problem because of consumer complaints," Lindholm said. "[We] went out starting June 12 to start inspecting pumps. We are continuing those inspections this week. We had 11 new complaints this morning, so our inspections continue to grow, even though the level of complaints has started to drop off. We originally were looking at stations in Isle of Wight County and the cities of Va. Beach, Suffolk and Chesapeake. By today we have complaints from throughout the extended Tidewater area, from the city of Franklin to the west to Gloucester County in the east."
She added, "It is confined to the Tidewater area, but is widespread throughout that coastal area.... It is a large urban area and, in addition, we have many tourists coming to the beach who may buy gasoline there."
Lidholm said that the inspection at the station level likely will be completed within the next few days. "For the most part, the bad gas is long gone. Many stations emptied their tanks as soon as they received notification that they may have received gas with high ethanol levels. Some that tested fine went ahead and got new gas just to be on the safe side.
She said some legal action may be possible.
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