GASOLINE LEAK FORCES SERVICE STATION TO CLOSE

CHAFFEE -- Department of Natural Resources officials fought to stop a gasoline leak in Chaffee late into the night Thursday.

Wink's Convenience Store on South Main Street in Chaffee was closed to business and circled with police tape after the leak was isolated Thursday afternoon.

The gasoline leaked from underground storage tanks at the Winks site into the city's sewer lines. Trenches were dug around the gasoline tanks to enable workers to stop the leakage.

"The men could actually see the gasoline flowing out of the tanks," said a DNR official on the scene. "In the zone of saturation, the test meter went off the scale, registering over 2,000 parts per million."

Thursday wasn't the first problem the city has had with the leaking tanks, officials said.

The leak was first detected March 19, and the Chaffee Fire Department was called out to flush the lines. Since then, the lines had been flushed four times, for a total of 8-10 hours.

The Chaffee mayor said gasoline in the sewer line reached over 95 parts per million Thursday afternoon. DNR officials say that anything over 30 parts per million is considered volatile.

Jackson L. Bostic, an environmental specialist with the DNR in Poplar Bluff, said that cleanup of the spill could cost as much as $75,000.

"We don't want to shut down a business," said Bostic. "But we find that people don't understand the need to follow state guidelines and mandates from the start."

DNR officials said the convenience store might be able to reopen this afternoon. They said the store lot was barricaded to keep the public clear of the leak.

"If we have people standing around gawking, we run the risk of someone flipping a cigarette in the wrong direction," said Bostic. "That would be bad."