HomeMy WebLinkAbout1981 10-04 Fuel fumes increase in Maplewood neighborhood PIONEER PRESS C
. 10 F Metro/Region October 4, 1981 St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press
Fuel fumes increase in Maplewood neighborhood.
By Anne Brataas and Johnson's for the night.But they re- not from local wells. Those few resi- more pressure on the pipe,finally fore-
. Staff Writer .Gasoline and fuel oil turned home the next day because they dents who do use wells have deep wells ing the pinhole leak, caused by corro-
It's been nearly three months since asay the fumes have subsided some. — 200 feet and more — and are safe sion, to rupture. Oil started bubbling
leaked from pinhof e. in Williams has been good about paying from contaminated drinking water, from Koutek's driveway.
leak in a Williams Pipe Line Co. fuelfor rooms in Howard Johnson's,pump- Dullinger said. Meanwhile,the Kouteks are negotiat-
main was discovered and repaired in main O erated b
Maplewood, but workmen still are P Y ing the wells, installing beepers and This problem has turned out to be ing a settlemedt with Williams. The
pumping gasoline and oil from the • •
WWillian,s Pipeline Co. checking the area, the Madigans and bigger than we originally envisioned," company may buy their home or put
ground,some 5,500 gallons so far. Kouteks said. he said. "We are still pulling product them up in a townhouse, according to
And the soil is still seemgasoline Friday morning, for example, the fuel mixture)out of the ground,but Charles Danchertsen,supervisor of ter-
(thep g doorbell rang at the Madigan home. A there is no dan er...It doesn't appear mals and stations at Williams.
fumes that seem to be spreading from was discovered July 11,a pipeline crew Williams employee carrying a hazard- to be spreading-. I think the clayoils None of the neighbors wants to go to
house to house on Bartelmy Lane. has been working seven days a week on ous gas detector that looks like a large and the geology of the area will onfine court now.All just want the calm of the
The fumes first permeated the home Bartelmy Lane,daily pumping between flashlight with blinking red lights on topthe product" neighborhood restored.
of Richard and Elaine Koutek.Now they 200 and 500 gallons of gasoline and fuel announced,"I'm here to sniff your,ah, "We moved here about a year ago be-
are invadingAl and June Madigan's oil mixed with PUMPING THE mixture is the most
g groundwater from six house." cause of the area.It's city,but it's not
.house to the south of the Kouteks. shallow wells the company has dug to But neighbors said the company is not effective way to extract it from the like city, it's like country with all the
The Kouteks abandoned their home tap the mixture. good at telling them what's going on. ground,according to the PCA and Wil- trees and vegetation,"said Mrs. Fiske.
: last week and moved to a motel.They State and local health and safety offi- "We'd like some information," said hams. Because the gas-oil mixture is "We don't want to lose any of this."
were afraid their house would explode, cials say there is no danger to health, Sharon Fiske,who lives just south of the lighter than water,the mixture tends to MRS.FISKE is taking pictures of her
and said the fumesgave them headaches safetyor the environment from thegas- Madigans. "Theysaythe leak is over, float to the soil surface.
g trees and shrubs in case they are dam-
' and nausea. The pipeline company is oline and oil mixture.But the neighbors don't worry about it,take it as it comes. Williams pumps out both the water aged by the gas and oil."I want to be
paying the bill. remain'skeptical. No one knows how But I'm not satisfied." and the gasoline-oil mixture and then able to prove to a court or insurance
• But the Madigans don't know what to much fuel is in the ground,or when it "It's very ambiguous,"she continued. separates the water from the fuel. It company they were once healthy,"she
do. They didn't expect the problem to will all be recovered. "The absorption pattern seems to be usually pumps between 200 and 500 gal- said.
become theirs. Williams crews now pump the wells getting wider,spreading.I want to know Ions of gas,oil and water mixture a day, The Madigans are simply waiting.
"Shortly after they discovered that as often as three times a day. what to expect so I can take some pre- according to Berry.The amount varies__ "I don't know what else we can do,":
new fuel pool across the street,we be- The company tried to install a hazard- cautions. I want to know when it will with rainfall that raises the water table. Mrs.Madigan said."We'll just have to
gan to smell gas," June Madigan said. ous gas detector in the Madigans'house end." Williams has recovered about 5,500 see what happens."
Before that, it was just the Kouteks last week, but was stymied by theTHE MINNESOTA Pollution Control gallons of gas oil mixture so far,Berry Moving is a possibility, she said,
that had the problem. Now it's us and fumes.The alarm began ringing during Agency is satisfied with the cleanup ef- said. "We'd like to stay here.We never really
the neighbors on the other side.I'd never installation,meaning that there was 20 fort. "I wish I knew when this would be thought about moving, until now. But
really worried about it before,but now percent of the minimum amount of gas Bob Dullinger of the PCA's emergen- over," he said. "But because the leak what if we want to sell our house in 10
I'm wondering.I think it's spreading." in the air needed for an explosion,ac- cy response unit,water quality division, was so small, it wasn't detected for a years?How do you say everything's fine
She said her family hasn't complained cording to Don Berry,supervisor of lines said the gasoline-oil mixture is not an long time. We've got it under control when this has happened? The after-ef-
• of any major health problems, but and right-of-way at Williams. environmental or health hazard.He has though—it's going well." fects of this thing have.got to be long-
"There's the stink. And sometimes my "It's not dangerous,because it gives checked the site with various monitoring Dullinger said the pumping could con- term."
eyes itch a little,but nothing big. us an 80 percent safety margin,"he said. equipment and said the dangers of ex- tinue through the winter. "It's like I told their (Williams')
GASOLINE and oil leaked into the "It just keeps us informed." plosion or health problems are low. The leak was discovered when Wil- claims adjuster," she said. "He asked
ground from a pinhole-size leak in a Wil- EVEN SO, the Madigans, like the Most of Maplewood gets its drinking Hams began pumping oil,instead of gas- me what I wanted. I said, 'My-house
:.hams underground line.Since the leak Kouteks before them,went off to Row- water from St.Paul or North St.Paul, oline,through the pipeline.Oil exerted _back.'"