Florida agriculture inspectors had issued four stop-sale orders and visited 125 fuel facilities in seven counties by Nov. 5, after 11.67 inches of rain fell on West Palm Beach on Nov. 1-2, according to CBS12’s reporting on figures from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. A stop-sale order shuts off a pump. It does nothing for the driver who filled up there the day before and is now holding a repair estimate, and water in gasoline is a hard thing to get anyone to pay for once it is in your tank.
What Florida had reported by Nov. 5
CBS12 reported on Nov. 5, and updated the story Nov. 6, that FDACS had received 10 complaints about contaminated fuel in the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County. Nearly 20 inspectors were working in Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Indian River, Brevard, Hardee and DeSoto counties. The department had not yet said where the four orders were issued and said it was still gathering complaints and inspection reports. I could not find a newer FDACS count, so treat those numbers as a week old.
One of the complaints is Amber Massie’s. The Fort Pierce driver told CBS12 her truck started acting up right after she bought gas at a station at Hartman Road and Orange Avenue. The truck is in the shop, and she was facing “thousands of dollars in repairs,” CBS12 reported, without a specific figure or a diagnosis. At two other stations CBS12 visited, employees described water in the fuel system: at a Chevron at Roebuck and North Haverhill roads in West Palm Beach, an employee said the company found water in the fuel and was removing and replacing it, and at a Marathon at 7245 N. Military Trail in Riviera Beach, an employee said water had been removed and the station was waiting on an inspection.
How floodwater gets into station tanks
Stations store fuel in underground tanks, and the EPA’s Underground Storage Tank Flood Guide lists the ways water gets in. Flooding can damage fill caps, spill bucket plungers and sump lids, all openings into the system, and a tank pushed by water can shift or pull away from its vent lines and piping. That is why a pump does not need to be underwater to sell bad fuel, and CBS12 noted, citing the EPA, that contaminated fuel can reach a vehicle that never drove through floodwater…