Local

90% water found in premium gas at Riverdale station

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Metro Atlanta drivers who shelled out top dollar for premium gas ended up with tanks full of mostly water.

"Ninety percent is not a mistake. It's either negligence or intent," attorney Ricardo Mosby said.

A letter from the Georgia Department of Agriculture to one of Mosby's clients confirms a sample of premium gas pulled from her car's tank was more than 90 percent water. The gas from her car, along with another client, came from a Citgo gas station on Highway 85 in Riverdale.

"I couldn't believe that anybody would have that percentage of water in their gas tanks, especially given the cost of gas nowadays," Mosby said.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant confronted the gas station's manager with the state results. He blamed the bad gas on runoff from recent rainstorms that got into underground storage tanks.

"We had an issue with the rain water, you know," the manager said. "It has been fixed, so we're just waiting for the inspector to come and check it out."

The bad gas did more than $1,000 damage to both cars belonging to Mosby's clients.

"The question is how many other people's cars have been damaged?" Mosby said.

He said they haven't been compensated for the issue, but the Citgo manager said otherwise.

"They've been already paid. They've already been taken care of by the insurance company," the manager said.

The agriculture department had the station's premium pumps shut down.

"The pumps are still locked. We have been back to the station twice. We go back periodically to make sure they haven't taken the seals off," said Richard Lewis, with the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

Inspectors will only allow the pumps to reopen when they're convinced the problem has been fixed, and they get a solid sample.

"We'll definitely be checking them out making sure we don't have a repeat of this problem," Lewis said.