The Milan News-Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Gas contamination mystery is solved
By Brian Cox, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 5, 2007
Milan Police Chief Jeff Lewis believes he has solved an 18-month-old mystery that has confounded investigators and clogged the gas lines of patrol cars.
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In the final days of 2005, two days after Christmas, every car in the Milan Police fleet malfunctioned and required service. The vehicles stalled out, would not idle, and were generally unreliable.
When the cars were taken to Spirit Ford for service, a thick sticky substance resembling maple syrup was found clogging the fuel lines of the patrol cars.
No one knew what the substance was or where it came from. Vandalism was not ruled out.
"At this point, we're not sure if it was just bad gas or if someone tampered with the vehicles," Officer Ty Chatell said at the time.
The incident prompted the department to install locking gas caps on all their vehicles.
Lab tests were conducted on the substance, but no definite answer was found.
For the previous year, police had fueled up at the Milan Area School District bus garage and some thought perhaps the gas in the district's storage tanks was contaminated, but an independent study by Paragon Laboratories found no contaminates in the tanks.
It was also confusing that other city vehicles that drew fuel from the district tanks appeared fine.
As an interim solution, the police department began fueling up at a local gas station and encountered no further problems. In time, they switched back to purchasing gas from the district at a discounted price.
The cause of the problem was never resolved.
This past November, however, three patrol cars again required service and again a "foreign substance" was found in the gas lines. Even a Milan Area Fire Department car stalled in the lot.
Lewis, who was named chief just last year, shifted the fleet from the district fuel tank to a local gas station again, but this time kept his vehicle drawing on the district tank. When that car experienced problems, Lewis was convinced he had found the source of contamination. A look inside the district's fuel tank revealed what Lewis thought might be rust.
"We don't feel anyone has gone behind the station and disturbed the cars," he said. "The source of contamination turns out to be from the school."
He said he was not sure why only police vehicles seemed to be affected, but as far as he is concerned the mystery of gas contamination has ended.
"The cars are running fine as long as we go to the local gas station," he said.
Staff Writer Brian Cox can be reached at 429-7380 or bcox@heritage.com.
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