The McKean Ground Water

The ground water of McKean has had a few problems over the years. One of which was at a local gas station owned by a resident of the name Ron Matz. It was found that three of the four tanks storing gasoline were leaking harmful contaminates into the ground water in October of 1987. The leading contaminate was MTBE (Methyl-Tert-Butyl-Ether). MTBE speeds up the contaminate flow in water/soil, and is found in gasoline. Since this was involved in the contaminates, the gasoline spread to more wells than it normally would have. The tanks were then dug up, removed and new tanks were installed. Several water supply wells were contaminated, mostly on Kevin Drive, which is directly behind the gas station. There is a slight hill behind the gas station which influenced in leading the contaminated to Kevin Drive. Some of the residents on Kevin Drive had to have water filters installed, provided for by the state government. The homes had levels of chemicals that were well above health guide lines.

We were informed by the EPA there was also a second release of gasoline leakage in 1994, this is when the EPA really got involved to find out what was causing the problem. This time, there was an order issued for the operator of the gas station to replace water supplies. Also, contaminated soil from the sight was removed. Matz, who operated the station filed that he could not afford the cost for the filters, so, again, the government had to help pay for them. The owners of the land that the gas station was on had to pay for the removal of the tanks, not Matz. Paula and Jim Clapper were stuck with paying approximately $180,000 for everything.

The EPA stated that they were still considering options for further clean-up, but any plans would not be in the immediate future.

Mr. Vogen checks and mostly manages the filtering system at McKean Elementary School. He told us that the school uses Culligan charcoal filters. There are three of those filters that the water flows through before it is clean enough to be used in the school’s facilities. Microbac tests the water used in the school through out the building on different occasions. Mr. Vogen stated that there has been no problems with the filtering system and never has a certain level of one contaminate been above levels that would be hazardous to intake. Mr. Vogen also clearly said that the school’s well had not shown up positive for the gas leakage and that there was no actual proof that the contaminate had reached the school. The filters were just a precaution the people of McKean wanted to make, to be sure that their little children couldn’t even have a chance of drinking harmful water.

We weren’t able to contact Paula and Jim Clapper, or Ron Matz to hear what they knew and wanted to say of the situation.

No one knows really how much gas had been leaking into the ground water, and how long it had been. The contaminated water would have flown into Lamson Run, a creek near McKean. Then, from Lamson Run into Elk Creek. Since it hasn't been recorded how much gasoline had leaked into the ground, the contaminate could have reached many more wells then known. This whole situation could have been prevented, a lot of time and money has been spent in trying to clean up this matter.