Gasoline Spill Requires Intense Community Involvement
Presented by: Steve Jarvela and David Polish, U.S. EPA Region 3

This session covers many unique aspects of a removal action that involved a gasoline spill complicated by the presence of an old coal mine, requests for property buy outs and disaster declarations. The Tranguch Gasoline Spill Site, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, involves an estimated 50,000 gallons of gasoline that leaked along an antiquated sewer system that served a residential community in northeastern Pennsylvania. First addressed by the State, this spill quickly became a cause celebre for local elected officials. Local media stirred this bedroom community of mostly retired people into a frenzy by ignoring the facts in favor of newspaper-selling headlines. Add to this mix a group of residents who will accept nothing less than a federal buy out and you have the recipe for a community involvement nightmare. This session will cover the history of the site from a technical perspective; the mechanics of vapor intrusion; a brief history of the response by the Pennsylvania State DEP and its initial community involvement efforts; the involvement of Group Against Gas (GAG), elected officials, and the media; EPA’s response and its focused community involvement efforts; the removal action; how property values and buy outs became the main issue (not health); the completion of the project; and lessons learned.