Investigation continues into gas leak at Charlottetown Petro-Canada station

The investigation into an underground gasoline leak at a Charlottetown Petro-Canada station continues, but it's still unclear exactly how much gas was lost.

On Wednesday, P.E.I.'s Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action was told 4,500 litres of gasoline was missing from tanks under the Petro-Canada location on the corner of Belvedere and University avenues.

The owner told the department the loss was noticed during a fuel delivery on Saturday.

Environment officials told CBC News on Thursday that consultants were being brought in to proceed with a cleanup at the site, operating on the presumption that the gasoline had leaked.

The province said the station's owner had brought in "an industry expert" to excavate the site and was able to recover some gasoline that had been contained from leaking further. 

"They brought them in and they specified one area under the site that was leaking. They excavated that up, 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," Environment Department official Greg Wilson told CBC on Friday.

"This gas was removed, the faulty infrastructure was repaired, the entire underground piping system was tested and all the infrastructure and safety measures were confirmed to be working properly," a spokesman for the environment department said in an email to CBC News.

An independent consultant is being brought in to assess diagnostics on the computer system.— P.E.I. Department of Environment, Energy and Climate Action

"Upon further investigation, the owner has also reported to EECA that it appears that the computer system [that] tracks volumes at the station may have malfunctioned, thereby causing the reported loss of gasoline to be overstated.

"This is still unconfirmed at this time, but an independent consultant is being brought in to assess diagnostics on the computer system."

After CBC News sought comment from Petro-Canada, its parent company Suncor replied by saying: "The information you have regarding this site is not accurate."

The company did not elaborate further, however.

The province said no digging will be done around the station until they have more information.

Any costs for clean-up will be the responsibility of the owner, provincial officials said.