City of Elizabethtown says Wawa gas spill did not reach city stormwater system

Elizabethtown Mayor Jeff Gregory said the city did not release information on a July 20 fuel spill at the upcoming Elizabethtown Wawa gas station because there was no imminent threat to the public and the incident happened on privately-owned property.

“It was under control,” Gregory said. “Our folks did a good job. We’re not the investigating agency. The state is, and we expected the state to cut a press release because it’s their investigation, or Wawa to cut a press release because it’s their business.”

Gregory asked staff with the city’s Stormwater Department to address the spill during Monday’s City Council meeting. A statement from Wawa released by the city states that the fuel spill “occurred during a routine quality test that was being performed by a third-party vendor/contractor.”

City Stormwater Director Rita Davis said 1,500 gallons of fuel spilled into the gas station’s private catch basin, which is connected to a 66,000 gallon underground detention system.

“We’ve been monitoring, checking the downstream catch basins to see if anything has left that Wawa site, and we’ve determined that nothing has left the site,” Davis said. It’s all collected into the underground detention basin.”

City Stormwater Engineer James Gray said the incident wasn’t reported because the gas never entered the public system.

“In the big picture here, it was about 25 bathtubs of liquid going into an area that holds 1,100 bathtubs full of liquid, so it was a lot of fuel, but there was adequate storage in the ground, nothing left,” Gray said.

Wawa said the grand opening of the gas station will be delayed to the fall to allow for full remediation of the site.