KELSO — A Kelso gas station has cleaned a tank and offered to pay for damages after five customers pumped water and ethanol last month into their vehicles instead of gas.
Ranjodh Sidhu, part-owner of the Boondox Gas and Grocery, said the affected customers filled up on Jan. 18 at the gas station at 705 W. Cowlitz Way in Kelso.
What happened?
Robert Casper, retail branding manager for Ed Staub & Sons, the company that supplies gas to Boondox’s Shell pumps, said recent freezing rain and snow seeped into one of the gas station’s three tanks.
All of the pumps were impacted, but only one tank was affected.
Casper said the recent bad weather delayed the station’s refueling, so the tanks’ gasoline volume dipped.
When precipitation leaked into a tank, “because the gas was so low, it just hit everything that was on the bottom,” resulting in what Casper called a phase separation.
Phase separation occurs when enough water enters the fueling tank and ethanol separates from the gas and attaches to the water molecules, creating two distinct layers. Casper called the separation of ethanol from gas as becoming “bad fuel.”
Fixing the problem
Tania Smith said she filled up about $20 worth of gas at around 5:30 p.m. Jan. 18.
After driving away from the station, her vehicle died a few blocks away and white smoke started coming out.
She said she had to buy new spark plugs, costing about $75, as well as new gasoline, and had to have her car towed and gas tank drained.
After seeing what was inside her tank, she thought she pumped water into her vehicle, but it was mostly ethanol. Ethanol is a colorless transparent liquid resembling water.
Smith said the gas station owner was “very apologetic” and paid $150 for the ordeal.
“We took care of everybody,” said Sidhu of the impacted motorists.
Casper said after receiving the second complaint, Sidhu shut down the system and emptied the affected tank the following day.
“When something like this happens and we take the right precautions, you literally have the cleanest tank to town,” he said.
Matt Esnayra is a news reporter for The Daily News covering public safety in Cowlitz County.
