An estimated three gallons of gasoline spilled onto the ground from a passenger vehicle at Maritime Farms in Newcastle the afternoon of July 11, but the gas station was back open for business less than an hour later.
Michael Horst, of Bremen and Macon, Ga., said he was headed to Portland to pick up his daughter when he stopped his Chevrolet sport utility vehicle at Maritime Farms to fuel up. He set the pump and went to clean the vehicle’s windows when a man on the street yelled to let him know the vehicle was leaking fuel.
“It was gushing out,” Horst said.
Horst said he smelled gasoline when he first approached the vehicle that morning.
“It’s unfortunate. I guess the lesson is you have to trust your nose,” Horst said.
Newcastle Fire Chief Clayton Huntley responded to the scene after the page went out at 1:35 p.m. and, with Horst’s help, started putting down absorbent pads to sop up the gasoline.
Huntley estimated about three gallons had spilled, and none had flowed into waterways or storm drains, he said. The Department of Environmental Protection has been notified, he said.
The incident may have to do with a recent fuel pump replacement in the vehicle, Huntley said.
Horst said he is not concerned about the $50 worth of fuel he pumped, but about the impacts from the spill.
“The spilling of it in the environment is what really bothers me,” he said.
Fortunately the incident occurred in town where emergency personnel were close by to handle it, instead of out on the highway somewhere, Horst said.
Traffic was down to one lane on Main Street while the Newcastle Fire Department was on scene, and traffic assistance was provided by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
Maritime Farms was back open for business at 2:10 pm.
