The phrase “stuff happens” ran through my mind when 60 people, including me, participated in a community forum about Royal Farms’ plans for a convenience store, gas station and car wash at Route 24 and Angola Road. “Stuff happens” was a recurrent theme of our lively discussion.
Consider this: Data from live run logs, DNREC reports and media accounts document that more than 40 spills or leaks of gasoline, diesel fuel, natural gas or motor oil have occurred at Royal Farms locations in Delaware since 2015. While many were small (less than 20 gallons), some released 50 gallons or more. First responders were able to wash down pavements after smaller spills, but larger ones required an environmental services company for cleanup.
According to Royal Farms, “Our cutting-edge tank systems adhere to top industry safety standards, strategically positioned to minimize environmental impact and ensure maximum safety.” Note that minimize does not mean prevent from happening. In February 2020, for example, a spill at a Royal Farms in Newark allowed nearly 25 gallons of diesel fuel to “leave the paved surface,” according to DNREC’s report. Five years later, at the Royal Farms in Hartly, a sizable quantity of diesel fuel flowed all the way to a stormwater retention pond.
What caused such stuff to happen? Pump malfunctions, such as failures of emergency cutoffs, led to nearly half of the events. Others happened when vehicle fuel tanks ruptured after drivers hit debris in a Royal Farms parking lot. But several incidents resulted from human error or negligence, such as when drivers drove off with fuel nozzles still in their vehicles or left their vehicles unattended and fuel overflowed. Risks can be managed, but nothing can guarantee that stuff won’t happen.
Judging from publicly available information, incidents involving motor vehicles seem to occur fairly frequently at or near Royal Farms facilities: drivers strike gas pumps, trucks hit buildings, vehicles collide. In 2012, a tanker delivering diesel fuel to a Royal Farms in Westminster, Md., swerved to avoid a car and overturned, spilling 8,000 gallons, injuring two people and closing roadways for hours. One shudders at what might result from a similar incident at a Royal Farms facility in Angola.
Convenience stores with gas stations pose other risks, notably from violent crime. The neighborhoods near Royal Farms’ proposed site are among the safest of any in Delaware. Why jeopardize property owners’ rights to enjoy their life, liberty and happiness?
Hundreds of local residents are opposed to Royal Farms’ proposal. Perhaps officials of that Baltimore-based company should reconsider barging in where their facility is neither needed nor wanted.
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