Cleanup and monitoring continues in the Hardin County town of Eldora where thousands of gallons of gasoline leaked out of a tank. Carl Berg of the D-N-R says crews have dug up around the tank at Agvantage Farm Supply.
“We’re still evaluating the site to see the extent of the contamination. The DNR is working with their contractors…to determine the extent of the spill,” he says. Berg says it is 10,000 gallon tank and it’s believef about 7,500 gallons of the unleaded gas leaked out. He says they are trying to determine how far the gas seeped into the soil.
“It appears to be localized in that vicinity, but they are still working to narrow that down,” Berg says. The spill was reported last Friday after workers in a bank next door to the fueling station noticed a gas smell in their building. Berg says precautions set up to catch any leaks didn’t work.
“They have leak detection installed and it appears that it may have failed or didn’t operate properly,” according to Berg. Berg says they will continue to keep an eye on the site after they get done with this initial investigation.
“Eventually, this will kind of get turned over to our underground storage tank section to further monitor, and then most likely this site will be monitored for an extended period to determine if there is any contamination that might move off-site or migrate into the groundwater,” Berg says.
Berg says they will determine how to safely dispose of any of the gas they find in the ground and contaminated soil will be sent to the landfill.