Medium Regular, With MTBE
or, Four Corners (Rutland MA) Dunkin Donuts remains closed
from The Landmark

Rutland- The Dunkin Donuts at Four Corners remained closed earlier this week after elevated levels of MTBE, an additive found in gasoline, were detected by state inspectors in the store's well water.

Joseph Faucher, owner of the doughnut shop at Colonial Convenience store, located at the intersection of Route 122 and Pleasantdale Road, said he's fully cooperating with the state Department of Environmental Protection and has hired a licensed site professional to help clean up the contaminated water.

Faucher met with representatives from the DEP's Central Region office in Worcester on Friday to discuss the situation and make a plan to move forward. Faucher thinks the Dunkin Donuts will reopen, provided water results meet the state's safe drinking water standards, in about two weeks.

In the meantime, the convenience store and Mobil gas station at the establishment remain open.

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Ed Coletta, DEP spokesperson, said the department's Worcester office took the initiative of cross-checking records to see if the number of newer doughnut and food/gas station establishments had obtained public water supply permits. A DEP water supply permit is given to an operation that pulls water from the ground and services 25 people or more a day, Coletta said. The permitting process involves testing the water and making sure the well is 100 feet or more away from gasoline tanks.

Also examined is whether a site without a water supply permit is near a hazardous materials site. Coletta said a hazardous materials site is located across Route 122 from Colonial Convenience.

The DEP office has a list of 100 operations that will be checked. After DEP officials learned that the shop did not have a water supply permit, water samples were taken from the Dunkin Donuts kitchen and bathrooms. The DEP received the test results last Wednesday, which showed that the water had levels 2,000 parts per billion of MTBE. The state guideline for safe drinking water is 70 parts per billion.

"That's almost 30 times higher than our state guideline," Coletta said.

MTBE, methyl tertiary-butyl ether, is a synthetic compound added to gasoline since 1979 to remove lead and is an octane booster. It is considered to be a possible carcinogen. According to Coletta, researchers have since found that the additive moves very quickly if spilled into a water source, and dissolves readily in water.

"Obviously, we're very concerned," Faucher said in a phone interview Monday.

Data on MTBE and its effects on human health is now under review by health officials, Coletta said. There is some thought that the additive could increase kidney weight, he said.

Illness from acute exposure is possible if one or two cups of coffee, using water that had MTBE levels that exceed 14,000 parts per billion, is consumed each day for up to two weeks.

Sub-chronic effects may occur from drinking similar amounts of coffee a day, using water that had MTBE levels that exceed 10,500 parts per billion, for two weeks to seven years, Coletta said.

Chronic, long-term exposure is associated if one or two cups of coffee were consumed by someone daily, using water that had MTBE levels of 70 parts per billion, for seven years throughout a lifetime.

Coletta said the DEP has had no reports of illness and did not hear any reports of ill-tasting water in the Rutland case.

DEP and the town's board of health agent immediately closed the doughnut shop. The state required Faucher to hire a state-licensed site professional to assess the problem and come up with a list of remedies.

Faucher visited the DEP's central regional office on Friday; however Coletta said he was unsure what was discussed.

A source of the contamination has not yet been determined. "That still has to be assessed," Coletta said. It's unclear how long the water was affected. Coletta said it could have been contaminated as long as the establishment has been open, just over two years, or as short as two weeks.

"There's really no way to determine," he said.

Coletta said it's the owner's responsibility to apply for the DEP water supply permit. "That was not done in this case," he said.

Enforcement action, such as a fine, is likely, he added.

Immediately following the detection, Faucher had all lines going to the gas pumps and the underground tanks tested for any leaks. Similar testing was done in June.

"We wanted to make sure there wasn't any kind of release," he said. "There has been no release of product. My lines and my tanks are tight as a drum."

None of the establishment's sensors have given off any indication of leak detection, Faucher said. "We had the water tested eight months ago, and the water was clean as a whistle," he said. A water test completed when the store opened showed no contaminates, he added.

Faucher said he secured all the necessary permits and licenses from the town when he opened Colonial Convenience and all have been renewed, he said.

The well has been used for more than 60 years, Faucher said. Previous landowners had no knowledge of the state permit, he said.

Faucher said the Rutland Board of Health was never notified that a public well water source had to be registered with the DEP, and said the local board didnÕt have any knowledge of it until the state came to the town a few weeks ago.

"There's been a disconnect between the regulatory agencies," Faucher said.

Karin Leonard, Rutland Board of Health chairman, and Randy Mizereck, health agent, said they both thought the well was grandfathered because it has been in place for so long.

"We had considered it grandfathered because it existed before 1985," Leonard said. The board of health was aware the DEP was in Rutland checking to see which establishments were in compliance, but what caught the board by surprise were the contamination results and the wellÕs proximity to the gas tanks, she said.

According to Mizereck, the well is approximately 50 feet away from the tanks.

"We don't know where itÕs going to go," Leonard said. "We're letting DEP handle it and [FaucherÕs] consultants."

As to how the MTBE got into the water, Faucher said, "We're not sure, but we have some ideas," but said he didnÕt want to speculate.

Faucher said he hopes to reopen the doughnut shop in the next two weeks, but only if the water meets state guidelines.

"We think it might be a very correctable situation," he said.

posted by prof_booty | 12:21 PM