DEP checks contaminated wells Source of heating oil found in Monticello groundwater still unknown

MONTICELLO – The state Department of Environmental Protection has yet to find the source of more than 200 gallons of home heating oil that contaminated two wells on Silver Street.

“There’s no clear source,” Carl Allen, a DEP oil and hazardous materials specialist from Presque Isle, said Friday. “There’s nobody in the area who lost oil that we’d find this much.”

Based on lab tests, he said, the oil has been determined to be about 6 months old.

He said oil still is being recovered from the well of Duane Faulkner. A filter has been installed there, and plans are being developed to drill a new well for Faulkner and possibly one for the Wesleyan Church parsonage, about 50 feet south of Faulkner’s well.

In 1997, the well at the parsonage was contaminated by diesel fuel from the town garage, which abuts the parsonage property. That problem was addressed, a water filter was installed at the parsonage and water from the well has been tested regularly since then. No one is living at the parsonage.

Some heating oil was found in the parsonage well in April and briefly again this summer, but it has since tested clear.

Allen said the town garage has been ruled out – “no question” – in connection with the latest contamination.

Several test wells have been drilled on both properties, soil core samples have been taken and smaller sampling wells have been drilled.

Sampling and monitoring wells also have been set up on nearby properties and the town garage lot, but all have turned up negative so far.

The DEP in August set up an emergency treatment trailer on the site which pulls water from Faulkner’s well, takes out the oil, and sprays the cleaned water back onto a nearby grassy area.

That since has been replaced with a long-term structure with a larger treatment system.

Allen said a fracture has been found in bedrock on the property where oil has accumulated. It has been determined that the fracture travels to the north side of Faulkner’s house as well.

Allen said the technical services division of DEP will be taking over the project to develop a long-term treatment and collection plan.

“We’re not done by any stretch,” he said, adding that in addition to the new wells, groundwater will continue to be monitored, more monitoring wells will be drilled and DEP staff will continue to track the source of the fuel.

He said even the best recovery efforts sometimes can recover only 10 to 20 percent of the total.

“There’s more out there,” Allen said. “That’s why we’re playing the game so hard.”