Date: Fri 08-Aug-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Mauro's-pollution-Hilario's

Full Text:

Chemical Contaminates Another Restaurant Well

BY KAAREN VALENTA

For the second time in the past year, a carbon filtration system has been

installed on the well of a restaurant in Newtown because traces of the

chemical MTBE were found in the water.

The owners of Mauro's Restaurant at 133 Mt Pleasant Road (Route 6) installed

the system recently to filter out any of the chemical, usually used as an

additive in gasoline, and to assure a potable water supply. A similar system

was installed last October at George's Pizza and Restaurant on Route 302 in

Dodgingtown after a gasoline tanker truck crashed and burned there, spilling

9,100 gallons of gasoline.

Water quality testing has shown that the water is safe to drink at both

establishments, according to Mark A.R. Cooper, director of the Newtown Health

District.

Workers from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau

of Water Management used a geoprobe to take soil and water samples from

Mauro's parking lot on Monday, July 28, in an attempt to identify the source

of the contamination.

The geoprobe is a truck-mounted hydraulic ram that pushes a steel rod into the

soil to collect samples. Afterward, one or one and one-half inch plastic pipes

were inserted in some of the holes to create "micro wells," which can be used

in the future to collect water samples for testing, according to Scott Wing,

DEP senior environmental analyst.

Mauro's is adjacent to Hilarios, a service station that has been in operation

for decades. The station's buried gasoline tanks were dug up about six years

ago and replaced with new Fiberglas tanks.

"One of those [new] tanks leaked and the DEP came down here when it was

repaired," Newtown Fire Marshal George Lockwood said. "[But] we think it's an

old leak that has contaminated the soil."

Mr Lockwood said the DEP probe discovered about an inch and a half of heating

oil on the water table beneath the restaurant.

Mr Wing said the geoprobe operation revealed that there are two problems at

the site.

"The oil tank at the restaurant is leaking," he said, "and there are possible

problems with the [old] gas tanks at the service station."

But Mr Wing said on Wednesday that the DEP's testing has not yet identified

the source of the contamination in the restaurant's water supply.

"For the most part MTBE is exclusively in gasoline, but it is occasionally in

heating oil," he said. "It is up to the property owners to resolve this."

Buried tanks - both heating oil and gasoline - are becoming a major problem in

Newtown, Mr Lockwood said.

"Someone has to address this problem," he said. "There are old buried gasoline

tanks in Hawleyville at commercial properties now owned by Dodge King, the

Hawleyville Deli, and on Barnabas Road.

"There are leaking heating oil tanks in residential neighborhoods all over

town. On Crabapple, Mt Laurel and other roads off Osborne Hill, where the

tanks are 20 years old, a big problem is developing. There could be another

Apple Blossom Lane out there."

Water mains are being installed in the Apple Blossom Lane area using $1.2

million in state funds because MTBE was found in residential wells in the

area, and the DEP was unable to locate the source of the contamination.

Last week Mr Lockwood told the Legislative Council's ordinance committee that

as many as 800 to 900 buried oil tanks may be leaking in Newtown. The

ordinance committee has been debating for six years whether to enact an

ordinance regulating buried oil tanks.

The fire marshal said the contamination at Mauro's was discovered when an

environmental assessment was done in March when owner Mary Ann King put the

restaurant up for sale.

"When a commercial establishment is up for sale the owners have to do an

environmental study," Mr Lockwood said. "They found out the well was

contaminated and that the soil was contaminated with gasoline."

Mr Lockwood said the DEP was notified but no one told the health department

until about three weeks ago.

"There's two divisions of DEP - water compliance and fuel spills - and a lot

of the time one doesn't know what the other is doing," he complained.

Mr Lockwood said the buried oil tank must be dug up at the restaurant and the

contaminated soil must be removed. He said the work will be done next

Thursday, August 21, by Enviroshield, Inc, a pollution abatement company from

Stratford, while he and the DEP monitor the work.