Dillon County cleans up massive gasoline spill

DILLON — As BP rolls into its fourth month of cleaning up a massive oil spill, state and local officials are rolling into their fourth year of fighting to control a gasoline spill in Dillon County.

In November 2006, the S.C. Department of Health and Environment Control began efforts to control a 3,000-gallon gasoline spill in Dillon County near the S.C. 301 North bridge and Kintyre Road.

Agency officials have been at it ever since, said Buck Graham, a program manager with DHEC.

DHEC hosted a community meeting in Dillon on Thursday night about the gasoline spill to inform the public of the progress its officials and others have made and to update them on the ongoing challenges associated with controlling such a disaster.

“We’ve had consistent complaints and we know people are concerned about it,” said Donna D. Moye, DHEC public participation coordinator.

The ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill has made people curious about the Dillon County spill happening in their neighborhood, she said.

“I think people are more aware and that’s a good thing,” Moye said.

Residents smell the stench of the displaced gasoline and worry for their safety and that of the nearby Little Pee Dee River, the subject of multiple disputes in Dillon County.

States officials told residents Thursday the gasoline spill hasn’t caused any major fish kill and that it’s still safe to eat fish caught in the river.

No injuries or personal harm has been reported as a result of the spill, either, Moye said.

Many residents who attended Thursday meetings were glad to get updates about the cleanup project and relieved to know the county’s river had been somewhat spared from the spill.

“I just want to thank you all for protecting our river,” one resident told the DHEC officials Thursday.

The agency said it began to act on the matter immediately after it was informed about it and soon discovered the origin of the gasoline spill was an above -ground storage tank at Butch’s Food Mart.

Officials said Thursday they don’t know how long the storage tank had been leaking gasoline or how the leak began. They discovered hoses connected to the tank were worn and bent in some areas and may have cracked and leaked gasoline over time.

The owner of the convenience store, Butch Hinson, wasn’t fined by DHEC, but was placed under a consent agreement which requires him to use whatever financial resources he has to clean up the spill.

The issuance of a fine to an entity or a person has to do with intent, Tom Knight, DHEC Bureau of Land and Wastewater Management program manager, said.

The agency does issue fines, but it is also effectively lets the responsible party use its own funds to help solve the problem instead of using it to pay a fine, Knight said.

About 40 percent of the total cost of the cleanup has come from Hinson. About 60 percent came from a trust fund accessible by DHEC.

State taxpayers are only responsible for the salaries of DHEC employees working on the project, DHEC officials said.

DHEC has employed about six different methods to control the gasoline spill which has affected a 300-foot-by-600-foot area in Dillon County.

Some of the methods, such as booms, are being used in the Gulf Coast. Booms are much like floating walls that work to trap the floating oil.

Skimmers are also used, but oil disbursing agents are not, as they contain metals that are harmful to the river’s delicate ecosystem and floodplains, Knight said.

Graham said DHEC will be working on the project until at least 2012.

The work humans can’t do is being done by naturally-occurring bacteria which “eat” the gasoline, but it will take the earth as many as 30 years to wipe out all traces of the disaster.