Florida HazMat Crew Responds To 3,500 Gallon Gasoline Spill At Plantation Gas Station
The leak was discovered in the fuel line that links an underground tank to the pumps used by customers at the BP Amoco station at Flamingo Road and Sunrise Boulevard. By the time the pumps were shut down, gasoline had escaped to the groundwater and laid an oily sheen over the rainwater in a nearby swale.
Al Gomez, leader of the county's fuel tank inspectors, said it was the worst spill in Broward County in five years.
The gasoline had been leaking for several days. The station reported the leak last Thursday to the Broward County Department of Planning and Environmental Protection, according to a discharge report form filed with the county. But, Gomez said, the county's tank inspectors were at a professional conference and the report was mistakenly routed to the wrong person.
The inspectors went to the gas station Thursday after someone called the county's pollution hotline to complain of gasoline in the swale.
No drinking-water wells were near the spill, but the groundwater was contaminated.
The TCI flex-pipe that failed is a type of pipe that was recently banned from further use in underground fuel tanks by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Gomez said. The department found that this type of pipe frequently failed, according to a notice sent by the department to owners of underground tanks. But the department allowed pipes already in place to remain in use.
The Broward environmental protection department is investigating to determine the cause of the spill and whether to issue a citation to the station's owner, said Rick Wilkins, director of the Department of Pollution Prevention and Remediation.
Kok Fong Chen owns the station. Reached by phone, his wife, Mable Chen, said they have insurance and that a contractor is cleaning up the spill.
Plantation Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Joel Gordon said gasoline apparently leaked out of the pipe every time a customer pulled the lever to dispense fuel. The station's owner noticed that the tank was losing gasoline quickly but refilled it before realizing there was a leak, he said.
He said he wasn't sure when the fire department would allow the station to reopen, saying the cleanup has to be completed before customers are allowed back.
