Town Pump fixing watered gas problem

A Town Pump official said Monday that the company was investigating what had caused water to be present in gasoline sold in Havre, and that the company is ready to help pay for any damages caused.

“We take full responsibility for this unfortunate accident, and we have been, and will continue to, reimburse customers for their expenses,” Jim Kenneally of Butte, supply and distribution manager for Town Pump, said in a statement sent to the Havre Daily News.

Kenneally said that on March 31, one of the Havre store’s unleaded tanks took on water, apparently with surface water entering the tank during a fuel delivery. The company hired an independent third party to repair the tank apparatus, and it was put back into service.

April 19, customers again began finding water in their gasoline, Kenneally said, and the tank was shut down and an investigation started.

“The contaminated tank is being pumped out and will remain out of service until it has been completely repaired and tested. We are still in the process of testing and troubleshooting,” Kenneally said. “We anticipate Havre Town Pump will again be selling gasoline out of the remaining no-lead tank by Wednesday, April 23rd.”

He said the Havre store is still up and running and is selling premium gasoline at the price of regular unleaded until the sale of regular begins again.

Kenneally said additional procedures and quality controls are being put in place to make sure the problem does not occur again.

He said people who had mechanical problems due to gasoline purchased at Town Pump can call the Havre store at 265-9577 or the corporate office in Butte at 406-697-6700.

“Some customers already have done this, but we want to get the word out to everyone, as there may be other customers who have not yet contacted us,” Kenneally said.

He added that, as a 60-year family-run business, they are committed to customer satisfaction and will do everything they can to take care of their affected customers.

A memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said gasoline can absorb minute amounts of water, with ethanol blends absorbing more. While the water is dissolved in the fuel it causes no problems except a potential for lower fuel efficiency. When the water is separate from the fuel, called “phase separation,” it can create problems for an engine including causing the engine to stall or even damaging it. Phase separation typically occurs when water gets into a fuel tank when it is filled or when the temperature drops enough that water dissolved in gasoline separates from the fuel.

Annie Glover, communications director for the Montana Department of Labor and Industry that regulates fuel stations, said that DLI received one complaint at 10 a.m. Monday about the fuel at the Havre Town Pump. The department contacted Town Pump and was told the company had stopped selling fuel from the tank had hired a contractor to pump the tank out.

Glover said the stations monitor for water in their tanks and it rarely is a problem.

“We can only recall hearing about two cases of phase separation in the last three years,” she said.