photo by Roger Lee

Nash oil has plans to shut down this Summerville facility at North Gum Street due to environmental concerns.

Government officials and environmental specialists are looking into the possibility that some Summerville land has been contaminated.

On July 23 officials with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Town of Summerville responded to a complaint that material from Nash Oil at 203 North Gum Street had made its way onto a neighboring property. When they got there they found evidence that was indeed the case.

Mark Nash, owner of the fuel distributor company that sells diesel fuel to commercial trucking companies and contractors, said one of two things must have happened.

The facility has a concrete basin that is designed to catch and confine any runoff material or spills from its aboveground fuel tanks, lines and equipment. Nash says either heavy rains could have washed material over the basin or the basin could have been breached, which would allow material to seep through the basin.

“We think the basin has been breached so we are going to vacate the facility,” Nash said. “That structure is old and some of the equipment out there is 60-years-old so we are just going to close it down. We are also going to do whatever it takes to make things right.”

The EPA sent someone out to supervise a cleanup effort and ensure the problem didn’t escalate. On Wednesday, she said that clean up was complete.

However, officials are concerned that material may have been seeping into or flowing onto neighboring properties for some time and the ground on those properties may be contaminated with diesel fuel.

“We are concerned that over the course of several years a series of small spills may have led to material getting into the ground,” Greg Sams, an engineer for South Carolina DHEC Region 7, said. “If that is the case, it’s likely the ground water in that area is contaminated and addressing that may not be a simple thing. Cleaning that up would take some time.”

A few different companies have done business at the site over the past 60 years. Nash Oil has been there for the past nine.

Three environmental companies have been called in to assess any possible damage and the need for further cleanup. One of them will take groundwater and soil samples and send them off to a certified lab for testing.

The two biggest concerns officials have are with runoff material that rain could wash into the town’s storm drain system and with the drinking water at the properties surrounding the site.

Both DHEC and Summerville CPW officials say there is no reason to believe any of the town’s water supply lines have been contaminated because they are all pressurized and made of concrete or other material that diesel fuel cannot penetrate.

However, if the property owners in the area have plastic pipes leading into their homes, there is a risk of water contamination there, which is why their drinking water will be tested.

Town engineer Russ Cornette says if a significant amount of diesel fuel were to runoff into the town’s storm drain system there should be signs such as an oily sheen in the Sawmill Branch Canal and that he found nothing like that when he looked into the matter.

“I haven’t seen any evidence of damage in our system,” he said.

The matter has residents in the area and property owners anxiously waiting for tests that should show the extent of the problem.

Michael Powders was considering buying the neighboring property The Ship It Shop sits on, but now he’s not sure that’s such a good idea. For now, he has plans to rent the land and keep the shop open and see what the future brings.

“I have been talking with the owner for a while, but I sure don’t want to get stuck with some property that won’t be worth anything,” Powders said.

Contact Roger Lee @ 873-9424 ext. 213 or rlee@journalscene.com.

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