(WSVN) - A South Florida gas station is fueling frustration for drivers. They’ve complained several times this year about water in their diesel. The Nightteam’s Patrick Fraser has more on this “Trouble in the Tank.”
When you run a business that relies on trucks, one thing you cannot do without are the trucks.
Alex Lopez, owner of Fun City Amusements: “Everything we have is delivered set up and picked up. Our trucks are crucial.”
Alex Lopez owns an amusement company, and Rudy Gonzalez owns a construction company.
Rudy Gonzalez, owner of H&R Construction Group: “Probably about 70 percent of my time is in my truck driving from job to job.”
Two men who didn’t know each other … until they filled their tanks with diesel at the same gas station.
Rudy Gonzalez: “Disgusted. It’s what I paid $90 for … to destroy my truck.”
That same day, Alex’s brother Adrian had stopped to fill the company truck with diesel…
Adrian Lopez, brother: “I drive about a mile, a mile and a half, and I get a message on the screen that says water in diesel.”
After filling their tanks with diesel at Orion Fuels in Homestead, the engines on both men’s trucks shut down.
Alex Lopez: “Plain and simple, we got bad diesel.”
When Rudy drained his tank, he saved a bottle of the liquid that came out. The clear diesel is on the top and separated from what appears to be water on the bottom.
Rudy Gonzalez: “This is it right here. Probably 30 to 40 percent water, plus a bunch of contaminants that who knows what that is.”
Both men complained to the state Agriculture Department but inspectors said they did not find any water in Orion’s diesel fuel when they came out.
Those are not the only two cases of people complaining about bad fuel from Orion this year. According to state Agriculture Department, at least four more customers said the diesel they bought from this station had water or sediment in the fuel. That means at least six trucks suffered expensive damage to their engines.
Alex Lopez: “So far, all eight injectors had to be replaced. Fuel system is nearly $10,000 in this far.”
After each of the six complaints, state inspectors came out. In only one case, on Oct. 5, did they find a problem with Orion’s diesel. And that day they shut the pumps down.
That’s aggravating to Brad Morton who posted videos on Facebook showing what he believes to be water in the diesel he got from Orion. Even though the state inspector who checked the pumps didn’t find any problem with the fuel, Brad believes his video proves it happened to him.
Brad Morton: “Trying to say that it wasn’t happening the way that it happened to me, which is why I took all those videos.”
In fact in one case, an agriculture inspector who showed up after a complaint about Orion wrote when he got there, “a crew was flushing and changing the filters on the diesel [pumps].” He wrote because of that he could not inspect the fuel, but he added the manager acknowledged there was a “contamination problem.”
Rudy Gonzalez: “The inspector told me that there is nothing they can do once they fix it. We have to let them open again.”
We wanted to talk to the owner of Orion Fuels in Homestead, but he wouldn’t return our calls. When we went to the station, a manager denied they ever had any problems with contaminated diesel.
Gas station clerk: “If there was actually a problem, we wouldn’t be able to sell. Every time there is a complaint, an inspector comes.”
The state does not test the fuel from the trucks — only from the pumps.
And while five of the tests did not show water in the pumps, some truck owners told us Orion’s insurance company still paid to repair their vehicles.
Alex Lopez: “I’m absolutely angry.”
But so far the damages to Alex and Rudy’s trucks have not been paid.
Rudy Gonzalez: “And they said just call my insurance company. Why should I call my insurance company? Why don’t you call yours? And they said, ‘Oh, don’t worry. This is just the way that it works.'”
Meaning Rudy and Alex have to hope their insurance companies pay to repair the trouble in their tanks so they can keep their trucks rolling.
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