Source: http://www.thetimesherald.com, May 17, 2016
By: Liz Shepard
A Port Huron gas station has stopped a leak from its underground storage tanks, but needs to come up with a long-term fix for the contaminated area in and long the Black River Canal, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.
Paul Owens, DEQ district supervisor for the remediation and redevelopment division, said Sunrise Convenience Stores has until September to come up with a plan.
“The leak is stopped,” he said. “They still have contamination in the soil and in the groundwater, so they have to define the extent … and basically come up with a plan to remediate it.
“The goal here is to develop a plan for some sort of long-term fix to prevent this from ever happening again.”
The DEQ became aware of the leak from the Marathon gas station, 3578 Pine Grove Ave. at Holland Avenue, in September 2015.
“We’ve been working with the responsible party,” Owens said. “They’ve sent in a few reports to us. They’ve done quite a bit of investigation and some cleanup actions.”
He said the year-long effort is not unusual.
“It can take a good year to define the extent and several years to get to the point where it’s cleaned up and met standards,” Owens said.
Owens said a sheen on the river has been reported and booms have been launched to contain it. He said a couple acres of land appear to be contaminated.
“There’s no drinking water issues,” he said. “We’ve been observing on a couple occasions a slight sheen floating on top of the water. It’s a violation of the Clean Water Act.
“We don’t think it represents any type of immediate risk.”
But that doesn’t mean you should be jumping into the canal.
“Probably wouldn’t be a good idea to swim there, but certainly it’s safe for boating,” Owens said.
There have been no signs of damage to wildlife or vegetation, he said.
Owens said there is no time line as to when the cleanup needs to be completed.
Sunrise Convenience Stores could not be reached for comment.