Only small amounts of petroleum products have leaked into residential areas from a multimillion-gallon sea of oil discovered beneath an Amoco refinery in Whiting, Ind., company officials said Thursday.
The first ground-water test results show concentrations of oil, gasoline, solvents and other petroleum chemicals below drinking-water standards in all test wells drilled so far in residential areas, Amoco said.
Higher amounts of chemicals, including cancer-causing benzene, were found only in test wells drilled on industrial property, said Pat Wright, a spokeswoman for Amoco, who emphasized that the results are preliminary.
”This is fairly good news,” Wright said. ”There doesn`t seem to be significant contamination of ground water. We`re encouraged by the data to date.”
However, the information released Thursday comes from only 10 wells drilled in areas adjoining the plant. Altogether, 43 test wells in Whiting, East Chicago and Hammond are being sampled, following the discovery of 16.8 million gallons of oil in ground water beneath the plant in January.
Neighbors of the plant, which dominates Whiting and provides most of the city`s income, called the test results good news. But most also said they are not ready to believe Amoco`s contention that its ground water ”does not pose a health risk.”
”I`m thankful the tests are indicating it`s pretty good, but I would guess few people are very satisfied,” said Platon Speros, who lives just a block from Amoco`s property line. ”Amoco is not a good neighbor.”
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”I don`t think I`ll ever trust them,” added Judy Tokoly, who also lives near the refinery. ”They`ve said so many times that nothing was the matter.” Residents in the area, where an oily smell lingers in the air most days, have long complained that Amoco is polluting their air with its emissions and the ground through spills. Many now also complain that they cannot sell their homes because of fears about ground pollution outside Amoco boundaries.
Company officials believe the sea of oil beneath their refinery property accumulated slowly over the plant`s 102-year history. Amoco has pledged to clean up the spill and any oil that has moved with the ground water off of its property.