COLUMBUS -- Regular unleaded gasoline pumps at Cuzzin’s Corner, 12th Avenue and Eighth Street, have been red-tagged and taken out of service by the Nebraska Department of Agriculture Weights and Measures Department.
An inspection of the regular unleaded storage tank revealed the fuel was over the legal percentage of ethanol allowable for that type of fuel.
According to Dick Hirschbrunner, general manager at the station, a routine inspection of 526 gallons of fuel in the station’s 3,000 gallon capacity regular unleaded storage tank revealed the remaining fuel was 0.6 percent over the limit of ethanol allowed in regular unleaded gasoline.
“The percentage of ethanol in the regular unleaded tank was at 3.6 percent which is just 0.6 of a percent over the allowable level,” Hirschbrunner said. “This could be the result of fuels getting mixed when the supply tankers are loaded or somewhere else up the chain of supply.”
Steve Sorum, project manager, of the Nebraska Ethanol Board said: “Any fuel that contains ethanol at a level of 1 percent or more by volume is required to be labeled as an ethanol blend in the state of Nebraska.”
Bobbie Kriz-Wickham, public information officer for Nebraska’s Weights and Measures Department said she couldn’t “speak specifically to this specific issue while it is still under investigation. In general a fuel pump can be red-tagged and taken out service for either calibration or labeling infractions.”
Kriz-Wickham said Nebraska’s Weights and Measures Department uses the Weights and Measures Act as its standard.
“Basically it says that 1.5 percent is the tolerance. Above that, it must be labeled,” she said. “If, when a field test is conducted, the level is found to be under 3 percent, the department will not red-tag or stop sale from that pump. This allows for some variance in the field testing equipment, but the retailer will be required to correct the problem.”
Kriz-Wickham said if the problem was found to be ongoing or consistent when inspectors returned to retest the pumps the retailer could be required to attend a compliance hearing and depending on the outcome of that they could have their permit to sell fuel revoked.
Hirschbrunner said rectifying the situation includes providing six months worth of invoices and sale receipts to the Weights and Measures Department for review and removing the fuel from the regular unleaded tank and replacing it with fuel that meets the guidelines.
Hirschbrunner anticipates the pumps will be open again early next week
“I’ve got the sales receipts collected, and I’m just waiting for some of the paperwork from the suppliers,” he said. “Then we’ll pump out the tank and place that fuel in the ethanol tank and refill the regular unleaded tanks.”
Ethanol-diluted regular unleaded gasoline has been in the news recently with the Weights and Measures Department reporting that its inspectors were finding three or four gas stations per week trying to deceive customers at the pump by putting ethanol in regular unleaded pumps and then selling it for the higher regular unleaded price.
Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning said Monday that he intended to “prosecute those who deceive the public. Certainly I would ask Nebraskans to be patient as we investigate these claims, but rest assured we’re gong to make people play by the rules. Gas prices are high and people ought to get what they pay for.”
A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency said the federal standard for regular unleaded gasoline allows for up to 10 percent ethanol in the fuel to be labeled as “regular unleaded.”
With the federal standard as a guide the states are allowed to adopt more stringent standards or limits for the labeling of fuel in each state.
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