10/30/12
Tucked in the corner of a cramped trailer is a gallon of a pink-brown liquid in a plastic container. It
sloshes and foams when Saiid Dabestani digs it out of the trailer. He
waves it around as he spreads his arms across the empty lot the trailer
sits on. “This is what we pulled out of the ground, gallons of
it,” he said, sweeping his arm across the dirt-covered lot. “Look at the
color. This is leaded gasoline.”Dabestani was standing in the middle of the former Super Quik Stop in Twin Falls. Weeds crowded the cracks between the pavement where pump stations once stood. The fuel tank was removed when the station closed in 1985, but hundreds of gallons of gasoline remained underground.
Over time, contamination from the site led state officials to declare the site a brownfield — an area blighted by contamination and where redevelopment is often hindered. There are close to 65 brownfields in Idaho. Fifteen of those, including the site on Washington StreetNorth, are located in the state's south-central region.
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