JACKSONVILLE, Md. ExxonMobil Corp. will face stiff penalties and all Maryland gas station operators will face even tighter controls on petroleum products following the release of about 25,000 gallons of gasoline from a northern Baltimore County, Md., station.
An electronic leak detection system apparently failed, said an Associated Press report, citing a state environmental official. The system of sensors installed in and around the underground fuel tanks and lines at the Jacksonville Exxon station did not react when tested about the time the leak was [image-nocss] reported, said Herbert Meade, chief of the oil control program for the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE).
"We're still trying to figure out what went wrong with this detection unit," Meade said. But even without it, he said, the leak should have been noticed much earlier.
ExxonMobil spokesperson Betsy Eaton, however, disputed the suggestion that the sensors failed. She told AP that the electronic system had been tested by company contractors and passed. The leak was discovered by checking daily fuel inventory records kept at the station, she said, and then confirmed by physically testing the punctured fuel line.
Initial samplings of more than 50 commercial and residential wells have turned up no signs of contamination from the leak, Meade said.
Officials believe the leak began January 13, when a contractor performing routine maintenance on the underground fuel storage system unwittingly drilled a pencil-sized hole in the buried fiberglass pipe carrying unleaded regular to the station's gasoline pumps. Gasoline spurted from the hole at an average rate of 28 gallons per hour, based on MDE figures, until ExxonMobil reported it to state environmental officials on February 17.
"It's totally unheard of in today's world, with all the safeguards we have on these underground storage tanks and the records we require to keep," Meade said. He noted that station operators are required to manually check gasoline inventories daily and promptly investigate any discrepancies. "That it could go on this long has us baffled."
The Exxon station was built in 1984 and was equipped with a leak detection system designed to automatically sense a drop in pressure in a fuel line or an unexplained decline in the gas level in the underground storage tank. When such a drop is found, the system is set up to trigger an audible alarm inside the station and alert a call center employed by ExxonMobil and other oil companies to respond to such warnings.
A contractor for ExxonMobil tested the sensitivity of the station's sensors to a nine-gallon-per-hour leak, "and the system never picked it up," Meade said.
An ExxonMobil statement said that in the month before the line puncture was discovered, "contractors were dispatched several times to investigate and did not confirm a leak." Eaton would not say what prompted the contractors to be dispatched or what they did at the station.
At first, Meade said, the contractors and Exxon apparently suspected the inventory discrepancies meant that gasoline sales were not being recorded properly. "It appeared that they were looking at it more as a bookkeeping, record-keeping error," such as a malfunctioning credit card reader, he said.
Failure to investigate inventory discrepancies could be a violation of state regulations, Meade pointed out, subject to fines of up to $10,000 a day.
Eaton said her company's officials are still trying to find out what happened, and she would not answer any questions about their findings until that inquiry is complete. "Right now we are dealing with a lot of conflicting statements and conflicting evidence," she said.
To date, more than 7,500 gallons of unleaded gasoline have been recovered and approximately 112,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater have been recovered. The equivalent of nearly 700 gallons of gasoline vapors have been pumped from the ground, as well. Vacuum trucks are operating on a 24-hour basis and a total of 53 monitoring wells have been installed at the site and surrounding properties. Water samples have been collected at 83 properties and to date no gasoline has been detected in drinking water wells of nearby homes.
In addition to the ongoing sampling of existing supply wells, ExxonMobil must also provide MDE with daily status updates on the amount of product recovered and other field activities. ExxonMobil is coordinating their investigation with BP Amoco, a neighboring station that is the source of historical contamination in the area.
MDE has also been working closely with legislators from the area including State Senator Andrew Harris, and State Delegates Rick Impallaria, J.B. Jennings, Wade Kach, and Patrick McDonough, as well as with Baltimore County Councilman Brian McIntire.
The event could have larger implications statewide, MDE said in a statement. MDE is committed to doing all we can, not only to clean up this contamination, but also to prevent such a disaster from occurring again elsewhere in Maryland, said Secretary Kendl P. Philbrick. We are quite frankly baffled as to how someonewith all the regulatory controls we have in placecan explain the release of hundreds of gallons per day that went apparently undetected, unreported and with no intervening action for over a month. MDE is closely investigating this case and will be taking strong enforcement action against ExxonMobil.
MDE expects to finalize its investigation within the next few weeks. The department will issue a press release with details of the violations and penalties and when a complaint is filed, it said.
As a result of the incident, MDE is directing all retail station owners to verify the proper calibration and operation of their leak detection systems. Additionally, MDE is proposing emergency regulations to further safeguard groundwater supplies across the state that will increase the frequency of leak detection system testing at all retail gasoline outlets in high-risk groundwater use areas and tighten inventory controls and reporting of inventory discrepancies.
The actions I am proposing today are tough, but necessary, Philbrick said. We have learned here that we need additional checks and balances to ensure early knowledge of releases so they can be addressed.Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.