On Friday, November 25, 2005, Delta Fuels, which is located at 1820 Front Street, Toledo, Ohio, experienced an overflow of Tank #3 (of 5), which is a two million gallon gasoline tank. The pipeline which feeds the tank was mistakenly directed to Tank #3, which was already three quarters full. The floating roof tank reached its capacity and its overflow conduits began releasing gasoline. The PRP estimated that this continued for more than one hour.
The PRP became aware of the problem upon the arrival of the Toledo Fire Department (TFD), which had received complaints from nearby residents of gasoline vapors. TFD issued an evacuation order for the buildings immediately to the northeast and to the Fru-Con construction workers to the south (contractors for the Ohio Department of Transportation). The PRP estimated the release at approximately 10,000 gallons and proceeded with the removal action assuming that the release was contained to the secondary containment of the tank farm. They continued this operation through the weekend, without reporting the spill.
On Tuesday, November 29, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT)contractor confronted Delta Fuels multiple times regarding a strong gasoline odor in their office trailer. Fru-Con contacted the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), and in turn the OEPA, informed the US EPA of the release and potential migration off-site.
US EPA On-Scene Coordinator's(OSCs) Jon Gulch and Mike Beslow responded to the Delta Fuels site in the early evening hours of November 29. Upon arrival, the OSCs learned that the quantity of the spill was closer to 50,000 gallons, had breeched the secondary containment, and was in the storm sewer system. The OSCs observed no liquid pooling within the secondary containment and an inadequate secondary containment system with vegetation growth and multiple animal burrows. OSC Gulch contacted the US Coast Guard (USCG) and notified them that the spill was greater than what was originally estimated in the National Response Center (NRC) spill report. The PRP began attempts to isolate the source of seepage from their secondary containment, continued their product recovery efforts, and increased to their operation to 24 hours. Delta Fuels filed a NRC report in the evening hours of the 29th.
On Wednesday, November 30, US EPA and USCG conducted a meeting with Delta Fuels and their contractors, Ohio EPA, Toledo Environmental Services, ODOT, and Fru-Con to discuss the details of the release and the development of plans for containment and remediation.
Delta expressed their intent to conduct the clean-up. They calculated their loss from the tank to be 103,288 gallons of 87 octane gasoline, and had recovered approximately 15,000 gallons of product over 6 days. Their plans integrated continuous vacuuming from retention ditches both inside and outside the secondary containment area, vacuuming and placing absorbent booms in the storm sewer catch basins, and conducting subsurface GeoProbe activities to predict the migration.
US EPA and USCG continue oversight of the responsible party’s cleaning efforts.
Delta Fuels continues to operate with over 3.5 million gallons of gasoline stored within their tanks, with a secondary containment system that is not adequate
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