The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

Rubis is in the final stages of “active,” multi-million dollar remediation plans following the underground gas leak at its Robinson Road Texaco gas station.

Marine and maintenance manager, Huel Dames, said the leak has been repaired and residents in the affected areas have been connected to the city water line at the company’s expense, rather than relying on contaminated well-water.

The leak happened earlier this year, and Rubis “immediately mobilised a team” of Bahamian and international consultants to address the problem, Mr Dames explained.

“It was a situation where we had a faulty product delivery line,” he said.

“That leak was repaired and the system was pressure-tested, which then guaranteed us that we had stopped the leak. The service station was closed and the products in the tanks were removed, and we basically just had a shell of a site.”

In the following weeks, Mr Dames said Rubis moved to identify where exactly the product “would have migrated to” by drilling monitoring wells in the area.

“The effort is, whenever you have a product release, to identify where it is. You’ll appreciate the fact that it’s not above ground so you can’t look and see... So in this process, we drilled monitoring wells, and by analysing the soil and the vapour that was coming from those wells we can say what’s there,” he added.

“As a result of those wells we’re pretty confident we know exactly where this product is and where it was, and there’s been quite a lot of testing going on.

“We’ve employed a number of recovery methods starting from vacuuming, skimming, and on the site presently we are employing a system called soil vapour extraction - where we actually create a vacuum under the ground in those areas impacted, and that has the effect of pulling the product and the vapours into a machine that then burns it and makes it safe to emit to the atmosphere as carbon monoxide.”

Mr Dames said this remediation process has cost Rubis “in the millions of dollars”, as the company “spared no quarters” to get the work completed.

Rubis also did a survey of surrounding homes in the area, where they discovered that some were on their own private wells even though there was a facility for connection to the city’s water main.

“All of those wells, we went in and we put those homes on the city water,” Mr Dames said.

“We’re picking up the cost for their monthly water bills, and the wells in their yards are being constantly monitored to see if there’s any presence of hydrocarbons. We’re making every effort to minimise any impact, definitely, to the neighbourhood and the adjourning properties.”

Connecting these residents “was not that costly”, Mr Dames said, explaining it is a “a necessary cost and one that we’re more than happy to bear”.

Rubis will cover residents’ bills until the government agencies and authorities are satisfied that there’s no further threat, he said.

Mr Dames added that Rubis is hoping to have the Robinson Road gas station re-opened by the end of the year.

“We are actively remediating the site,” he said. “We are very much on schedule, we are pleased with the progress we have made and we are in the process of completing our remediation plans, which are going to be submitted to the Government for their approval... We are hoping to get the site open by the end of this year.”

In an effort to mitigate further incidents, Rubis has “computerised and modernised” inventory controls and is moving to install double-walled tanks and product lines at their stations.