Harmony FD removes chemical from new station site
ZELIENOPLE — Harmony Fire District on Friday moved closer to cleaning up the Main Street site of its next fire station, pumping what its president said appeared to be decades-old gasoline from an underground storage tank.
But some neighbors of the former Jack Hockenberger Motors, where the fire company will build its new station, noticed a faint gasoline odor from the sewage system.
Harmony Fire District president Kevin Behun said two storage tanks under the property had fluid in them, which engineers discovered one to two months ago when determining how to remedy the site for the fire company’s future use. One contained water, while another contained mostly water mixed with another property.
“At that point, it was believed for them to be empty,” Behun said. “The process for removing empty tanks versus tanks that had anything in them, those are two very different processes.”
The two tanks predated the Jack Hockenberger property, according to Behun, who described the odor of the unknown fluid as gasoline-like. However, Behun said he wasn’t aware of any testing to determine what the fluid was.
When the engineers learned of the unknown fluid in the tank, they contracted a service to dispose of it.
“All that was left in the tank was water and the sludge that is normally at the bottom of a tank like this,” Behun said. “The engineers believe that all of the gas, or product, or material, or whatever that is, is removed.”
The two tanks, as well as two unrelated and empty underground storage vats, will be removed Thursday under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, according to Behun.
"The Pennsylvania DEP has some very specifics as it pertains to underground storage tanks as to how they're removed, and when they're removed, and if they're removed,“ said Mark Gordon, the county’s chief of economic development.
Behun said the fire department is making progress in cleaning up the site for future use, “but the big question is when we’ll be able to put things out for bid.”
While the fluid was removed from the underground tank Friday, some neighbors of the fire company’s future station have complained of an odor.
Brian Pitell, owner of 420 S. Main St., said he has to have a new sewage lateral — the line installed between the property and the sewage main — installed. The T-Shirt Loft is located in Pitell’s building.
"It's an old line. It's terracotta, so it has holes in it. I don't even know how old it is,“ Pitell said. "As a result of that, with there being some cracks in the line they're getting some vapors in the basement."
Behun said “deductive reasoning would say probably” the two are related, and Pitell said he is “making the assumption that it is related,” but both said there is no direct evidence as of yet.
“There's more testing that has to be done before I can say, 'Oh, that's the problem,’” Pitell said.
Scott Basilone, who owns the Basilone Coin Laundry just north of the T-Shirt Loft, said he couldn’t smell any gasoline, but noted he had recently replaced his sewage lateral. However, Basilone said the building next to his had a smell.
Pitell said he is glad the possible gasoline was being pumped from the new station site, but added he wants to figure out what happened, something complicated by the involvement of different contractors, the DEP and others.
“There's just a lot of different entities involved, and understandably so everyone looks at it through their own paradigm, which is understandable,” he said. “But when you're trying to figure out what's happening and what, more importantly, should happen for everyone's long-term well-being, it can be a little more challenging just due to the number of parties that do need to be involved.”
Eagle photographer Sebastian Foltz contributed to this story.
