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Cleanup work continues at old gasoline tank leaks in Bayfield

Remediation work continues on two underground fuel tank leaks in Bayfield.

Traffic on Mill Street is reduced this week as carbon is being injected into the ground to bind with hydrocarbons and keep it out of the water table in the area, said Chris La May, the town manager from Bayfield. The old leak is from what is called the Capri Electronics site, now the B Diner parking lot. It hasn't been a gas station in decades.

Contamination under Mill Street was remediated last fall and mostly cleaned up, but one sample site on the south side of the street still showed contamination, La May said. The cleanup is being paid for by a state fund from the Division of Oil and Public Safety that covers "orphan" gas tanks. Four underground tanks were removed from the Capri site in 1989, but one remains. The current work is scheduled to take three weeks, then Mill Street will need to be resurfaced.

At another location, what looked like a small drilling rig was at Mini Merc in September.

In 1992 and 1993, Mini Merc installed new gasoline tanks and dispensers, and some remediation was done at that time for old gasoline leaks, said Michelle Nelson, the owner of the convenience store.

A small amount of contaminants were found again, so oxidizing materials were injected to the site.

"They put some material down there to promote the contamination being cleaned up," Nelson said. She said her business was responsible for most of the cost, with a state clean-up fund covering part of the expenses.

"We have to monitor it for 18 months," she said, then the state will inspect it again.

"We hope this is the last of it," she said. "It was a very small amount left."