KEY POINTS:
Thousands of litres of fuel are sitting under the forecourt of an Auckland petrol station more than a year after a spill of 10,000 litres from a leaky pipe.
Three companies - Petrol Alley Services Limited (GAS), URS New Zealand and Brown Bros (NZ) - appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday charged with the unauthorised discharge of a contaminant.
A fourth company, Fuelquip (NZ), has already pleaded guilty to the spill from a petrol station at Line Rd, Glen Innes.
Deborah Hollings, QC, for the Auckland Regional Council, which is prosecuting the companies, told the court the companies had done nothing to clean up spilled fuel from the ground since the accident in 2007.
Ms Hollings described a "cocktail" of errors by the companies which the council alleges allowed petrol from a punctured fuel line to spill into the ground and a nearby stream. Fire trucks arrived at the spill after locals found petrol in a tributary of the Omaru Creek in the Ruapotaka reserve.
Ms Hollings told the court GAS and Fuelquip made the December 19 spill worse because they did not tell the council or the Fire Service about it until the next day. The council now wants a full investigation to find out if the petrol that is still there could seep into groundwater.
The petrol station's new owner - who has not been charged over the spill - said he was worried to think there was still petrol sitting under his forecourt. The petrol station was operated by Caltex until mid-2007, when it was taken over by the GAS chain of franchises.
Farook Ketan said he bought the site two months before the spill. He said he was not even aware fuel was leaking from his site until the fire trucks arrived. The Herald understands at least 3000 litres of fuel were cleaned up in the four days after the spill. Firefighters stayed on site for three days because of the risk from petrol fumes.
Companies charged over the fuel spill either did not return the Herald's calls yesterday or did not want to comment. Their lawyers are expected to open their cases next week.
Mr Ketan said he lost 10,000 litres of 91 Octane petrol, worth $8000, and had to pay "a lot" towards the clean-up costs. He said he was not involved in the court case because he had not taken over the fuel pumps from GAS when the spill happened.
According to the council's case, the mistakes started in July 2007 when Caltex called URS to help it close down the petrol station. URS was asked to test the site for petrol contamination as Caltex prepared to leave the site.
URS contracted Brown Bros to help with the testing by drilling holes in the forecourt. The council alleges Brown Bros accidentally drilled a hole about the size of an old 50c piece in a fuel line meant for carrying 91 octane.
When GAS took over the site and turned it back into a petrol station, it is alleged the fuel lines were not tested properly before petrol was pumped back into them.
