Cleanup of Charlottetown Petro-Canada gas leak site halted until spring

The P.E.I. Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action says the cleanup of a leak at a Charlottetown gas station has been paused until the spring due to winter conditions.

In an email to CBC News, a department spokesperson said the mobile extraction system that has been on site at a Charlottetown Petro-Canada since Sept. 12 to clean up a gas leak was shut down on Dec.19.

The leak in August was originally reported as a loss of 4,500 litres of gasoline from the tanks under the Petro-Canada location on the corner of Belvedere and University avenues.

Consultants were brought in to clean up the site. An environment department official told CBC News on Sept. 1 that there was "a protective sump in that area in which they found some gasoline, but not all of the 4,500 litres they were looking for."

At the time, the department said the location's owner reported the computer system that tracks volumes at the station "may have malfunctioned, thereby causing the reported loss of gasoline to be overstated." However, the department official said that was still unconfirmed.

In an email just before Christmas, the department told CBC News there was no updated estimate for the amount of gas that may have spilled.

No one at the department was available for an interview.