Many people vividly remember when Hurricane Irene rolled through Western Ramapo. In the early morning hours of August 29, 2011, there was a sudden, suffocating smell of fuel oil that washed through Sloatsburg, causing numerous complaints and emergency calls to 911 and the local fire department.

The heavy rains of Irene created a flood of record along the Ramapo River, exceeding even the great flood of 1903. The rains also caused Echo Lake Dam in Arden, NY to fail and the breach in the earthen dam sent waters downstream toward SOS Fuel on the banks of the Ramapo River in Tuxedo. Rushing Ramapo River waters washed through the SOS site, heaving fuel tanks into the river. Trucks parked on the SOS property were tossed  by the Ramapo, causing one to ram into a large bulk storage fuel tank and shear off a valve. The fuel in the tank emptied into the river.

Some 10,000 to 25,000 gallons of diesel, fuel and fuel additives reportedly spilled from the SOS Tuxedo site into the river, moving rapidly through Sloatsburg, Suffern and Mahwah. One particularly vile smelling tank of fuel additives actually floated down river from the SOS site and lodged by Sloatsburg’s Nakoma Brook.

Geoff Welch, who serves as Ramapo River Watershed Keeper and organizes the annual Ramapo River Watershed Conference, slated for Friday, April 18, recently documented the new SOS Fuel site under construction and nearing completion along the shore of the Ramapo. According to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, the site is regulated under Petroleum Bulk Storage Rules.

The site plan was presented to the Town of Tuxedo Planning Board in August of 2013.

In Welch’s Words

According to their website, “SOS Xtreme Comfort is the leading full service fuel provider in Southern New York and Northern New Jersey. Offering 24-hour emergency service, timely deliveries…” However, in 2011 SOS Fuels caused a major pollution event on the Ramapo River during tropical Storm Irene when one tank leaked and one floated away while leaking, causing both water and air pollution down the entire length of the Ramapo River. In the 1980’s during a storm many 55 gallon drums of product floated down river from the same facility. The Ramapo River and aquifer supplies water for over two million people in N.Y. and N.J. Can’t we learn from our past mistakes or is New York no wiser than West Virginia in protecting rivers and public water supplies?