NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine -- Everett's Service Station could be forced to shut down if owner Robert Everett does not comply with environmental rules, according to a report by The Morning Sentinel.
Everett has been fined $15,000 for several infractions, including failing to submit annual compliance paperwork, maintain inventory records and maintain adequate corrosion protection on piping, said the report, citing documents from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.
Everett received 11 separate notices of violation since 1996, [image-nocss] according to a complaint filed in the Skowhegan District Court.
Everett's Service Station has been a landmark in Norridgewock, Maine, for decades, the newspaper said, partly because the independent operationit is owned by Robert Everett and his wifeoffers among the lowest gasoline prices around, and partly because of Everett's personal style. The retailer only accepts cash, and Everett often takes time to chat with customers, said the report.
Everett said there have never been any leaks at his station in the 30 years he has owned it. He said the violations amounted to poor record keeping.
"You have to take pump readings every day and every month and you have to send the DEP copies of that," Everett told the paper. "It is quite a process, but everybody has to do it unless you have automatic pumps."
Everett said the state enforcement action was "making a mountain out of a molehill," but that he is now in full compliance.
He also said he has no plans to change his way of doing business, although after 30 years, he is ready to retire. "I want to get out of it. I have been here long enough," he told the paper.
The enforcement action is not the reason he wants to leave the business, said Everett, who declined to give his age. But he did say state regulations are a burden. "As the years go by, the DEP makes it so hard," he said.
Laura Welles, district court enforcement manager for the Department of Environmental Protection, told the Morning Sentinel that maintaining the daily inventory records is required by law. "Because of the type of underground storage tanks that he has, that is the way he does leak detection," she said.
Welles added that Everett also failed to document inspection of his tanks every year, as is required under state law. "There have been years of noncompliance," she said.
Under the consent decree, Everett could be fined $100 a day if he does not maintain all required records, the report said. The order also states that if he does not abide by the conditions of the order he "shall properly abandon" the station.
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