CRAWFORDVILLE, Fla. (WTXL) — Glennie Bench, President of Southwest Georgia Oil Company in Bainbridge, Georgia, said they take their role in building safe and responsible gas stations seriously. The company wants to build a gas station in Crawfordville on the corner of State Road 267 and U.S. Highway 319. That property sits right above an underground cave system that feeds into Wakulla Springs.
"The elements that we are considering including at this station, are the exactly the same in every location we build," said Bench.
As the company looks to get approval, Bench says they're addressing those safety concerns. She said there will be measures in place to make sure gas and oil don't make it underground, including frequent safety inspections of underground tanks and a filtration system that will prevent spillage of gas at pumps from making it into storm water.
"The underground storage tanks are double walled. We test the interior wall on, a regular basis, we even test the interstitial space between the two walls, and we test the outer walls" said Bench.
Even with those measures in place, biologist Jack Rudloe who co-founded the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea says the idea of a gas station that close to the cave system is still unsettling, adding that pollution has already gotten into Wakulla springs after years of growth and development in the county.
"If petroleum is dripped out of the nozzle for instance, we have a trench drain system that captures that and takes it through a water separator before it would go through a storm water pond for instance," said Rudloe.
"Petroleum products in ecosystems is no mystery It's been happening forever, since we've been doing it," said Rudloe.
Dye tracings that have been performed in the county show it would only take eight days for water and other contaminants to make it into the springs from the possible gas stations site. The spring that is home to fish, birds and manatees.
Rudloe said while we might not see immediate impacts from possible containment, over the years it will all catch up.
"It's not like it dramatically happens," said Rudloe. "It's not like the deep horizon oil spill and we see oil covered birds. Fertilization doesn't happen and we don't see it, so all of a sudden we don't see the fish, we don't see the birds, it keeps diminishing, diminishing, diminishing."
While they share different views on building the gas station at the site, they both want to make sure that Wakulla springs continues to thrive.
"It's just an exceedingly rich environment and it's all laid out for you to look at," said Rudloe.
"it is a priority for us to make sure we protect the environment," said Bench.
