'I'm not comfortable': Rolling Meadows residents still smelling fumes more than month after fuel leak
More than a month after a Rolling Meadows Mobil station's fuel dispenser started leaking gasoline into the ground and sewer system, neighbors say they're still smelling fumes and fear the problem isn't being fixed.
"I'm not satisfied and I'm not comfortable," said Liz Davis, who on Monday noted fuel odors in her backyard that abuts the gas station at Hicks Road and Euclid Avenue. "I have no confidence that this is being handled thoroughly and comprehensively. ... This could've been disastrous. Why is gasoline ever getting into a sanitary sewer that runs right next to my house?"
While Davis and her daughter detected the smell in their yard, neighbors across and down the street got whiffs of it inside their houses, she said.
An elevated gas level also was detected at a manhole on the gas station property Aug. 3, but it dissipated on its own without the fire department having to flush water through the sewer. Other reports came into city hall and the fire department the weekend of July 28 - the first time since the initial complaints of strong odors a month before, city officials said.
Assistant City Manager Glen Cole said the recent smells are likely the result of excavation work at the station, and the wind conditions at the time.
"We are emphasizing to (the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency) and others that instances like this show how important it is that remediation begins and is completed as quickly as possible," Cole wrote in an email to residents.
Some 30 to 50 gallons of gasoline seeped into the ground and city sewer system at the end of June, causing vapors that at one point were explosive, city officials confirmed.
Repairs to the dispenser are underway - involving excavation, changes to piping, and the installation of a new sump - but a larger-scale remediation plan hasn't been finalized, Cole said.
As required by the state, the station's owner hired a contractor and environmental consultant to investigate and clean up the remaining gas underground, but it's a process that could take months.
The consultant took the first set of soil samples, but so far no new reports have been filed with the city or state, Cole said.
Maria Rattin, who lives at the end of the block served by the same sewer line as Davis, said she first smelled gasoline in her powder room last winter. Sometimes the odor is strong, but other times not as much.
"We're told because the levels aren't explodable that it's OK. But is it OK? Are we safe?" said Rattin, adding that some neighbors have reported getting headaches. "Why do we continue to have gas in the sewer water and why does this continue to have the neighborhood smelling? It's just frustrating. No one's accountable."
On Tuesday, the city council finalized updates to its 1970s-era fueling station "spiller" ordinance, which allows the city to recover costs from the gas station owner for manpower and supplies during the hazmat response. Aldermen also gave their first look to a proposed requirement that the city be named as an additional insured on any commercial liability insurance maintained by a gas station.
The Mobil station was expected to reopen as soon as late Thursday or Friday once repairs to the dispenser were complete and the Illinois State Fire Marshal inspected the work.