RECORD D SOUTH WHIDBEY
INSIDE
HOLIDAY GIFT
POSSIBILITIES SEE...A14
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2013 | VOL. 89, NO. 97 | WWW.SOUTHWHIDBEYRECORD.COM | 75¢
Drilling for answers on Main Street Wells will show progress of 2005 fuel spill; wait for test results begins By JUSTIN BURNETT South Whidbey Record After months of waiting, Freeland residents and water officials may soon have some answers about an old fuel spill and its possible impact on nearby wells. On Monday, a drilling team began work on four groundwater monitoring test wells on properties along Harbor Avenue and Main Street. The semi-permanent installations will function as windows to Freeland’s aquifer and should help show just how far the 8-year-old spill has traveled underground toward Freeland Water District’s wells. The work was originally planned to start months ago but was delayed due to difficulty securing access agreements with private property owners. After months of uncertainty, the commencement of drilling Monday was a big relief for water district officials, as there is a lot riding on what’s learned from the monitoring stations. “If the fuel makes it in (the district’s wells), there’s no way to get it out, which means we’ll have to dig new wells,” said Andy Campbell, the district’s manager. In 2005, the owner of Whidbey Marine and Auto Supply on Main Street — now closed — reported a release of thousands of gallons of fuel from one of the store’s fuel tanks. The exact amount is unknown but it could be as high as 7,000 gallons, state officials have said. The former owner has since participated in a voluntary state cleanup program and recovered about 2,000 gallons. Drillers peppered
Post Office promises mailbox rules won’t stop delivery By BEN WATANABE South Whidbey Record
Justin Burnett / The Record
Aaron Ocheltree, a driller with Cascade Drillers, marks a soil sample taken across the street from an old Freeland gas station where thousands of gallons of diesel spilled in 2005. the surrounding area with test wells and determined that the fuel had penetrated the aquifer — about 100 feet down — and was mov-
ing toward the water district’s main wells on Scenic Avenue. They provide water to about 90 commercial busi-
ness and about 400 residences. Ken Scott, a project scientist with Farallon Consulting, the firm hired to do the work
on behalf of the former gas station owner, was inspecting samples as they came up SEE DRILLING, A28
Despite claims to the contrary, mail will not be suspended on South Whidbey at homes with low mailboxes, according to United States Postal Service officials. Brian Wade, officer in charge at the Langley Post Office, said mail was not in danger of being held after notices went out to at least 300 residences in Langley and Freeland that their mailboxes were too low and needed to be higher. “We’ve been doing it this long, so we’ll keep on trucking,” Wade said. The notices were issued after he was informed that South Whidbey would receive five iconic United States Postal Service long life vehicles, the result of USPS consolidating routes. Wade said he doesn’t know when the new trucks will arrive, but he did confirm they are higher off the ground than the cars mail carriers use now. As a result, many mailboxes are too low for the drivers to quickly load and grab the mail. Standard mailboxes should be between 41 inches and 45 inches from the bottom of the box to the ground. “They’re built for mail delivery where a standard car isn’t,” Wade said of the new mail trucks. One carrier empathized with residents who built their mailboxes into covered structures, but noted that many mail carriers SEE MAIL, A28