Leak under Myrtle Beach gas station could be toxic. Tests are way overdue, a lawsuit says.
Nearly five years after a self-reported underground petroleum leak at a Myrtle Beach gas station, South Carolina health officials still can’t determine the environmental impact.
That’s because the business — North Pole Investments Inc., operating as Express Mart at 2620 S. Kings Hwy — has ignored avoided requests to submit a required groundwater sampling report, according to a lawsuit filed this week by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control in Horry County.
Kayur Patel, a manager of the Express Mart, told The Sun News he believed they’ve submitted the necessary paperwork to DHEC, and there are no environmental issues related to the 2017 leak.
The company submitted an initial groundwater assessment in May 2019, according to DHEC spokesman Ron Aiken, but they requested an additional sample due to “quality assurance deficiencies” with that report.
Ron Robinson, who Express Mart retained last year to ensure the gas station remains in compliance, said Patel and others involved with the business have made their best efforts to get DHEC what it needs, but a North Carolina company they hired to conduct the groundwater test has dragged its feet and submitted an incomplete sample to the department earlier this year.
“I’m really at an impasse (with the North Carolina company),” said Robinson, who told The Sun News he previously operated an environmental company that was licensed to conduct groundwater testing, but retired many years ago.
Robinson said he’s planning to suggest the Express Mart hire a different company and start over, acknowledging that without a full groundwater sampling report, there’s no way to know how far the petroleum spread underground at the facility.
Underground petroleum leaks can lead to serious environmental and health risks, including contamination of groundwater, a primary source of drinking water for about half of Americans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Facilities with underground petroleum storage tanks vary greatly in terms of the risk to human health and the environment, Aiken noted, adding that there are no drinking water wells within 1,000 feet of the gas station.
“Overall, the goal is to determine nature, extent and severity of the petroleum contamination ... in soils, sediments and groundwater and associated exposure pathways,” Aiken wrote in a statement.
DHEC has submitted at least four requests since 2020 to Express Mart for the report and had the owner sign order this February requiring submission of the report and payment of a $2,345 fine within 45 days, according to the lawsuit.
The gas station has not done either, DHEC alleges, leading to the complaint seeking a court order to back up that consent order plus “further relief as this court may deem appropriate.”
