State: Bad fuel no longer sold at Redmond Chevron

The Chevron on Highway 97 in Redmond is in hot water after reports of selling bad gasoline surfaced, but state regulators said Thursday the problem has been resolved.

“We did drain the tank and let the material set overnight, we ended up with about a 50/50 mixture (of) water (and) gasoline,” said auto technician Scott Joens.

Steven Harrington, manager of the Oregon Department of Agriculture’s Weights and Measures Program, which is in charge of regulating fuel quality, said they believe they found the cause of the problem.

“They have two regular gasoline storage tanks,” he said. “One of them had a turbine that was failing, and the failing turbine was evidently the source of the water contamination.”

An ODA inspector reported that the watered-down gasoline is no longer being sold.

“What (the gas station) said that they’ve done is to take that storage tank and isolate it from service, and take those dispensers that are affected by that storage tank and remove them from service until they get a chance to clean up the fuel in the storage tank,” Harrington said.

Customers of other gas stations have also contacted NewsChannel 21 since our initial report Wednesday, saying they’re also experiencing car problems, but Harrington said this is likely an isolated incident.

“Until now, we haven’t had any indication it was beyond the scope of the store in Redmond,” he said.

Customers who went to the Redmond Chevron and believe their car was affected are asked to call Chevron’s complaint hotline at (855) 285-9595.