Barrington Mobil that leaked fuel cleared to reopen
The Mobil station in Barrington that may have leaked thousands of gallons of fuel into the ground and village sewer earlier this week was cleared to reopen Friday.
Greg Summers, director of development services for Barrington, said the station at Northwest Highway and East Main Street passed an extensive test of its system conducted Friday by the state fire marshal's office.
It failed the same test Thursday night, when an air leak was found in one of the station's tanks. That leak, which is not thought to have caused the spill, has been fixed.
Officials believe the leak started shortly after a part was replaced on a high-pressure fuel line.
According to Summers, the station manager at first said the part in question was replaced last week but the fire marshal said the part was actually replaced Dec. 18 or 19.
Ironically, the leaking component was part of the station's leak detection system.
"The leak was likely going for four to five weeks," Summers said.
Officials aren't sure how much fuel leaked during that time, but Summers said crews vacuumed up about 12,500 gallons of a fuel and ground water mixture there this week.
Summers said officials verified that no fuel was flowing underground before they left the station on Friday.
"All of the emergency operations are done now," Summers said. "Now there is going to be a long-term remediation."
Although the liquid fuel appears to be gone, Summers said the gasoline likely left solid particulates and thick oil behind. On Thursday the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said it will require the company that operates the station to pay for the cleanup.
Summers said an outside environmental consulting firm is scheduled to be at the station late next week to take soil samples. The samples will provide a sense of how far the fuel spread, and the firm will come up with a plan to remove it.
The fire marshal will return in about 30 days to perform another pressure test of the station's tanks and tubes.