N.H. gas station to pay for spilling 1,500 gallons of fuel

July 30 -- A gas station in Milford, N.H., must pay $49,000 in environmental penalties for a spill that sent 1,500 gallons of diesel fuel into the nearby Souhegan River.

EPA said the Snack Corner Mobil Station didn’t use its spill prevention plan on March 5, 2009, when a pipe connecting a storage tank to a diesel pump broke and spilled the fuel. The fuel ran from the gas station, into a culvert and directly into the Souhegan River. An alarm, meant to alert the station owners and operators of tank problems, failed. Diesel fuel flowed out of the tank for three days before it was discovered, EPA said.

The Mobil site has since been cleaned and the facility’s two above ground storage tanks -- one with gasoline and the other with diesel -- have been removed.

Draper Energy, which owned the Snack Corner Mobil Station, and Energy North Inc., which operated the service station, are named in the settlement of the violations.

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Amanda Smith-Teutsch at 330-865-6166 or asmith-teutsch@crain.com