Florida Issues 4 Stop-Sale Orders Over Water in Gas After Flooding

• Florida’s agriculture and consumer services department has issued four stop-sale orders over water-contaminated fuel and logged 10 complaints from the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County after the Nov. 1 and 2 flooding.
• Hard starts, sputtering, weak acceleration, stalling and a lit check-engine light after a fill-up are the warning signs, though each one has other causes a mechanic has to rule out.
• Keep the receipt, write down the station, time, pump and grade, and report suspected bad fuel to the state at 800-435-7352 or 1-800-HELP-FLA.

How Floodwater Ends Up in the Gas You Buy

Four stop-sale orders sit on the books so far. The state has not said where they apply, and that gap leaves any driver who filled up in the flood zone after the Nov. 1 and 2 rain asking the same question: is the fuel in my tank clean?

Florida’s agriculture and consumer services department (FDACS) put nearly 20 inspectors on gas stations in seven counties, from Palm Beach and St. Lucie to Okeechobee, Indian River, Brevard, Hardee and DeSoto. Those inspectors have visited 125 facilities so far. Ten complaints about contaminated fuel have reached the department from the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach County.

The rain set the stage. West Palm Beach recorded 11.67 inches on Nov. 1 and 2, more than three times the city’s average for the whole of November, which puts that month’s normal total under 3.9 inches. Fort Pierce and Riviera Beach both declared local states of emergency.

Gas stations keep their fuel in underground tanks, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lists the entry points: the fill pipe, the vent pipe, gaskets, loose fittings, covers, sumps and cracks in the tank wall. Once inside, the water settles on the bottom of the tank and the fuel floats on top of it. EPA’s flood guide for tank regulators describes the vent pipe as a route of its own: water that enters there settles at the bottom and pushes product out.

A station pump draws from that tank. If the fuel it dispenses carries water, the water lands in your gas tank, and your car never had to touch a flooded street for that to happen. EPA’s guide also warns against assuming a station is fine when floodwater never covered it: a site the floodwater never covered can still have tank trouble underground, as the water table rises.

What Florida Inspectors Have Found

FDACS has not released the locations covered by the four orders. It said it is still gathering complaints and inspection reports, and two questions remain open: whether inspectors have verified contamination at the particular stations drivers have named, and whether other complaints or sales-stop orders exist beyond the numbers above.

What drivers and station staff describe adds detail. Amber Massie says her truck started misbehaving as soon as she filled it at a Fort Pierce station near Hartman Road and Orange Avenue. The truck sits in a repair shop, the bill is heading into the thousands and a ride from someone else now gets her to work. With no locations released for the four orders, her truck’s trouble has not been tied to any station.

At a station in West Palm Beach, standing water and closed pumps were visible, and a worker there told a reporter the company had found water in its fuel and was pumping it out and putting in fresh product. At a station in Riviera Beach, out-of-order signs covered the plus and premium grades at least; a worker said the company had drawn water out of the system and was waiting on an inspection. Those are staff accounts of their own sites. They are not inspection findings.

Symptoms, and What Else It Could Be

AAA lists eight signs of bad gasoline, and its guidance says water in the tank produces the same ones. The engine is slow to start or will not start, a sign AAA ties to contaminants such as water, other liquids or debris reaching the engine. The engine sputters or hesitates, with misfires and noise. The car answers the gas pedal late, and AAA says that delay grows worse at higher speeds and becomes a danger when you try to keep pace with traffic. The check-engine light comes on, the car stalls or drives roughly, or the gears slip and shifting turns hard.

Two more signs are quieter. You fill up more often: water dilutes the fuel, and the car gets less out of each gallon. And the gas cap sits loose and no longer seals, which AAA says lets water and debris into the fuel system. That last one points away from the pump. A cap that fails to seal gives water a way into your own tank, so check it before you blame the station.

Every item on that list has other possible causes, and a mechanic should diagnose the fault rather than assume contaminated gas is responsible. Timing is the clue you hold: trouble that starts right after a fill-up, on a car that ran normally before, is the pattern Massie describes. The separate case of a car that dies after wading through a flooded road is covered in our guide to driving through flood water.

What to Do and Who to Call

Start with the car. If it starts running badly after you fill up, get to a safe place and call a mechanic or roadside assistance. AAA members can call Roadside Assistance, and AAA’s other advice is to confirm you are using the grade your owner’s manual calls for, try a different station and, if the symptoms persist or worsen, have a mechanic test the fuel line and flush the system. The grade belongs in your notes: AAA rates regular gasoline at 87, mid-grade at 89 to 90 and premium at 91 to 94, and the out-of-order signs at the Riviera Beach station covered at least the plus and premium grades.

Then build the paper trail. Keep the fuel receipt. Write down the station, the time of purchase, the pump number and the grade you bought. Save every repair estimate, diagnostic finding and towing receipt, and ask the station operator how its claims process works. The receipt is the only record that ties your car to a specific tank on a specific day. Whether your own auto policy pays for fuel damage is a question for your insurer; read the policy or call the company before you authorize repairs.

Last, report it. Florida agriculture officials ask drivers to flag any flooded station or suspect fuel, which sends inspectors to look at the storage tanks. The numbers are 800-435-7352 or 1-800-HELP-FLA. Give the station name, the pump number and the time when you call; those are the details your receipt records.

What Happens Next

Two agencies work two different parts of this. FDACS inspects fuel quality in Florida, takes the complaints and issues the stop-sale orders. EPA writes the underground storage tank guidance; its checklist tells owners and operators to follow the rules of their own state’s tank agency for emergency response and for restarting a tank system.

The EPA checklist, which the agency offers as guidance, lays out the steps a station should take before pumps reopen. An operator measures the product and the water in each tank, removes the water and checks that the remaining fuel is fit to sell. The checklist points operators toward not using product when a tank holds more than 2 inches of water on the bottom. A tank of ethanol-blended gasoline should hold no water at all, and that fuel is unusable if water has caused phase separation or pushed it out of quality specification. In an emergency, diesel or gasoline without ethanol is still usable from a tank holding up to 2 inches. Operators are also told to watch for slow dispensing, frequent alarms, equipment shutdowns and customer complaints once pumps are back on, which makes your complaint to the station useful, and your report to the state as well.

The department has said it is still compiling complaints and inspection reports and has not yet named the stations behind the four orders. Until it does, a driver who filled up in Palm Beach, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Indian River, Brevard, Hardee or DeSoto County after the Nov. 1 and 2 rain has two tools: the receipt and a close watch on how the car runs.

Fuel is one way flood damage reaches drivers who stayed out of the water; our reporting on flood-damaged cars on US roads covers another.

Reviewed by Preetam Gadekar

Sources

• EPA: Underground Storage Tank Flood Guide
• EPA: Underground Storage Tank Flood Checklist
• AAA Automotive: Fuel Issues? 8 Symptoms of Bad Gas in a Car to Look For
• CBS12: Water in the gas: Pumps shut off, driver reports costly repairs after South Florida floods

Want more car content? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for the best automotive news and analysis on the internet.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to follow us on Microsoft Start.