SHOREWOOD, Wis. -- The owner of a CITGO gas station in Shorewood, Wis., has been ordered to start cleanup efforts after soil samples revealed contaminated soil near his station, reported the Shorewood Patch. State Department of Natural Resources officials will meet with the owner, Syed Rizvi, to discuss how he intends to remediate contaminated soil in the area of the gas station.
Fire officials said they found a significant presence of petroleum last week when crews drilled 8- to 10-feet deep in front of the station and collected soil samples. A private sanitary lateral in front of the station connects to a public sanitary sewer that runs east to west, said the report.
Fire officials and contractors have been searching for the source of a gasoline leak into Shorewood's sanitary sewer system since October 5, the report said, when they responded to a report of a gasoline leak in a nearby apartment basement.
The station has a history of contamination problems dating back to 1991, according to a TMJ4-TV report, which said the owner of the gas station, Syed Rizvi, hired Benchmark Environmental Services, an Illinois environmental engineering firm, in 2008 to examine the property, and inspection results showed that a 1991 fuel leak had contaminated soil nearbu--but Rizvi ignored the results.
Officials believe that the station has been leaking fuel recently, the report added.
"The soil sample contained high levels of benzene, which indicated to the environmental engineers that the contamination is likely new gasoline," fire officials said in a statement obtained by the paper.
Contractors compared the results of the sample to the historical soil sample analysis of a sample taken in the same area earlier. The historical soil boring had no or very low detection of the gasoline.
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