Fuel Leaks Prompt Store Chain Audit

By: Nathan Lamb

A pair of fuel leaks has proved costly for a Maryland-based convenience store chain, according to this story in the Baltimore Sun.

Royal Farms, which owns 70 stores across the region, recently reached a settlement with environmental officials that includes a $600,000 penalty and a comprehensive audit of the company’s underground fuel tanks and piping.

The settlement came after the Maryland Department of the Environment made it clear they were pursuing enforcement actions over two leaks that impacted residential homes.

The first was discovered in 2009, after a Rosedale home reported a gasoline smell. An investigation determined 5,400 gallons of fuel had spilled from the underground Royal Farms tank nearby. Royal Farms paid $2.7 million to settle the family’s case, and is pursuing litigation against the firm it hired to oversee the underground tanks.

Gasoline contamination was also discovered in five residential wells in the town of North East in 2011. Royal Farms is currently remediating the groundwater, and carbon filters were provided for some wells.

In both cases, environmental officials said the company wasn’t properly using state mandated equipment that detects fuel leaks. Installing and maintaining that equipment was a condition of the settlement.

A Royal Farms spokesperson said the company was not contesting the state’s accusations, but added the settlement was not an admission of wrongdoing.

Burst pipeline spills 80,000 gallons of heating oil in South Baltimore

February 20, 2008 - A burst pipeline spilled about 80,000 gallons of heating oil into the ground and sewers of Fairfield near Curtis Bay last fall, according to a state geologist.

The previously unreported oil spill came to light after Linda Stewart, proprietor of the Gaslight Tavern, started asking why local manholes were left uncovered.

Stewart says she is concerned about chemical contamination of the ground around her home and business and whether contaminated soils could cause her drinking water to become contaminated. "Both me and my husband have experienced burning eyes after getting out of the shower," she says.

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Baltimore family sues Maryland's largest power company over contaminated water

November 29, 2007 - An Anne Arundel County family has filed a lawsuit against Maryland's largest power company claiming that a leaky coal-ash waste landfill contaminated their neighborhood's drinking water.

At a news conference this afternoon in Gambrills, Gayle K. Queen, an education counselor, said her husband, David, died of suspicious kidney failure last year after unknowingly drinking water laced with lead, arsenic and other pollutants.

"The people in this neighborhood are anxious every day if the water they drink every day is safe or toxic," said one of her attorneys, Wayne Curry, former Prince George's County executive. "It's a porridge of hazardous chemicals being inflicted on these residents."

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services finds contamination in Baltimore park and neighborhood a public health hazard

October 31, 2007 - Areport from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released last week found that significant and lengthy exposure to the soil in Baltimore's Swann Park is a "public health hazard" and poses a slightly elevated risk of cancer. The park, which was contaminated for years as a result of its proximity to a pesticide-producing factory, has been closed since April, when tests found high levels of arsenic in the soil.

The new report may or may not change a major remediation plan to restore the park by sometime next year. But it underscores the importance of dealing with the consequences of contamination in the neighborhood and not just in the park.

Last week's report raised more of an alarm than a preliminary federal report issued in June that found no public health hazard unless children had eaten at least a tablespoon of dirt. But federal officials now suggest that people who spent at least 180 days a year in the park - such as children in baseball leagues, coaches and groundskeepers - and who may have inhaled dirt particles or touched the soil and then touched their mouths might have a greater risk of cancer.

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Health commissioner to study cancer deaths in the neighborhood around South Baltimore's Swann Park

October 27, 2007 - Baltimore's health commissioner plans to study cancer deaths in the neighborhood around South Baltimore's Swann Park in light of a new federal finding that arsenic in the soil poses a greater health risk than previously reported.

The U.S. Department of Health said in June that there was "no public health hazard" to children who have played in Swann Park, unless they ate a tablespoon or more of dirt. But the federal agency revised that assessment yesterday, saying that "recent and historic exposure to Swann Park soil is considered a public health hazard."

"This means that there is a low but potentially real increase in cancer risk for people who have a significant exposure over years to the park," said the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein. "It justifies why we closed the park and why we need to clean it up."

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Nearly one year after heavy metals were discovered in their wells, Maryland residents finally hooked up to temporary public water system

October 1, 2007 - In October 2006, Constellation Energy began testing wells next to a mine owned by BBSS Inc. after Lawrence Brown, a Summerfield Road resident, said his water smelled putrid.

Constellation collected water samples and detected amounts of heavy metals, some carcinogenic. The county Health Department began its own investigation into wells and found that 23 of 83 tested were contaminated. Fly ash, a by-product of burning coal, that had been dumped at the BBSS mine by Constellation Energy, was the source of the contamination, the county said.

Since the first wells in Gambrills were found contaminated with carcinogenic metals from the dump site, residents began living off a supply of bottled water provided by Constellation Energy Group.

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Maryland family fights for clean water, clean record

May 29, 2007 - The Kelseys paid $350 for Fredericktowne Labs to test their water, and had results within three days. The water from their Cameron Court home tested positive for petroleum compounds methyl-tertiary butyl ether and benzene, a known carcinogen, in the amounts of 46 parts per billion and 329 ppb, respectively.

The state takes corrective action when groundwater is contaminated with MTBE at or above 20 ppb and benzene at 5 ppb.

The family lives within a few hundred yards of the Green Valley Citgo at 11791 Fingerboard Road, which is under investigation for groundwater contamination.

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Maryland Park Known to be Contaminated for 31 Years Finally Closed

May 7, 2007 - Arsenic-laced Swann Park is one of several places along Baltimore's waterfront where carcinogenic wastes from long-closed Allied Chemical Co. plants are reappearing like ghosts from the city's industrial past.

Baltimore closed Swann Park, a popular spot for school teams and sports leagues along the Patapsco River's Middle Branch, after Honeywell turned over 31-year-old records showing high arsenic levels in the park. Follow-up tests showed 2,200 parts per million arsenic in the dirt, more than 100 times safe levels. Federal health investigators are studying whether there was any risk to children who played ball at the park or to neighbors.

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More Maryland Homes Test Positive for Contamination from Nearby Gas Station

May 5, 2007 - MONROVIA ----Two more homes have tested positive for contamination from the Green Valley Citgo station on Fingerboard Road, bringing the total properties affected thus far to five.

One residence on Farm Lane has methyl-tertiary butyl ether levels at 1,100 parts per billion ----55 times the levels of MTBE deemed acceptable by the Maryland Department of the Environment, which takes action at 20 ppb of MTBE.

Another property, also on Farm Lane, tested positive at 480 ppb.

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Parents ask about threat to children from arsenic in Maryland Park

April 23, 2007 - Could exposure to arsenic contribute to medical conditions such as chronic asthma, bronchitis or sleep apnea? Could high school football players pounding on contaminated dirt six days a week in practice, then eating sunflower seeds out of their dirty hands, have ingested enough of the poisonous chemical to worry about unforeseen health consequences?

Those were some of the questions raised yesterday afternoon at Digital Harbor High School, where about 25 people attended an informational meeting on the closing of South Baltimore's Swann Park because of arsenic contamination in the soil.

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More Maryland Homes Contaminated by Leak at Gas Station

April 20, 2007 - A week after one property near the Green Valley Citgo on Fingerboard Road tested positive for water contamination, two others have been found with methyl-tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE, in their groundwater.

Among those affected are Mellissa and Sam Ayala, who paid an independent contractor to test their water supply after learning last week that a neighbor's property had been contaminated with MTBE.

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Maryland Knew About Water Contamination

More about the water contamination in Maryland:

April 16, 2007 - MONROVIA, Md. (AP) - Although residents only recently found out about water contamination near a gas station, state environmental officials have known about it since 2004.

The contamination from the Green Valley Citgo has spread to the water supply of at least one owner, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

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State Aware Of Water Contamination Since 2004 - Never Told Residents

April 15, 2007 - (AP) MONROVIA, Md. Although residents only recently found out about water contamination near a gas station, state environmental
officials have known about it since 2004.

The contamination from the Green Valley Citgo has spread to the water supply of at least one owner, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment.

More . . .

Residents within half mile of gas station notified of contamination

April 10, 2007 - The Maryland Department of the Environment has found contamination in a well at a Monrovia gas station, the Frederick County Health Department announced Tuesday. More . . .