Source: http://www.thetimesherald.com, October 17, 2016
By: Liz Shepard
A Port Huron gas station is making progress in removing soil contaminated by leaking underground storage tanks.

“They’ve been very cooperative, they really have,” Paul Owens, DEQ district supervisor for the remediation and redevelopment division, said of the Sunrise Convenience Stores. “They’re working with us, we’ve had several phone calls with them, they’ve submitted their plan and they’re in compliance.”

The DEQ became aware of the leak from the Marathon gas station, 3578 Pine Grove Ave. at Holland Avenue, in September 2015.

The company submitted a remediation report Sept. 8 of this year.

Owens said while the DEQ has 180 days to review the plan and make revisions, work has started to clean up the contamination along the Black River Canal.

“They replaced the old tanks with a new tank system and removed some contaminated soil in doing so — which is a good thing,” he said. “What they are planning on doing as part of their corrective action plan is excavating some additional soils on the other side of the street right against the seawall.”

Exactly how much gasoline has leached into the soil and river is unknown, as is how long it was leaking before being stopped.

“It’s typical of these things, it’s not a one-time leak, usually small leaks over a long period of time,” Owens said.

Not all of the pollutants will be removed, as some has settled in the waterway below the roadway and is not accessible.

“It’s just really hard to get to,” Owens said. “Usually what happens is you try to get as much as you possibly can out and monitor long term to make sure it reaches a point of equilibrium.”

He said the pollution doesn’t pose a health or safety risk, but is more of an environmental concern.

“There’s nobody that’s on any drinking water well (in the area), the only real chance of exposure is if you are drinking that water or swimming in that river, but we haven’t had any complaints of any sheens,” Owens said. “As long as there’s no visible sheen, you should be fine as far as fishing goes … I guess I’d probably stay away from swimming in that area, but we haven’t felt the need to issue out any warnings or anything like that.”

Owens said there is no timeline for when the plan needs to be completed. Additional excavation along the seawall is slated for November.

A call to Sunrise Convenience Stores was not immediately returned.