Wheaton public works site has diesel leak

Wheaton has a bad gas problem that will require some expensive cleanup.

Public works staff in the water division found diesel fuel leaking into the basement sump pump at a facility located at 615 Countryside Drive on Oct. 10.

Experts then traced the gas back to a breach in a 1,500-gallon underground storage tank on the property. The fuel seeped out of the breach, meandered into the footing tile in the basement of the building and became noticeable from fumes coming from the sump pump.

"We've been fighting with it ever since," said Public Works Director Joseph Knippen to the Wheaton City Council Monday night. "We can't say when, where, why, but it's there."

The city reported the leak to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which set a timetable for the cleanup. City officials told the council Monday that the timetable is too short to seek completely open bids for the cleanup. They recommended hiring Christopher B. Burke Engineering at a price of $69,500 to remove the tank and clean up the spill.

City officials do not know how much fuel leaked out of the tank. They will seek a No Further Remediation letter from the IEPA stating the soil is clean once the project is complete.

"Ultimately, we really never know until you dig it out exactly what we have to do, right?" said Councilman Howard Levine.

"Correct," Knippen responded.

The current tank will be replaced with a 1,000-gallon, double-wall, fiberglass tank with a leak detection system. The engineering firm will now be responsible for the mandatory reports at 20 and 45 days into the cleanup process.

The completion date is estimated to be March 1.