VAN ZANDT, Wash. – Jeff Margolis and his late wife Amy owned and ran Everybody’s Store in Van Zandt for almost 50 years.
They closed the gas station and convenience and novelty store in 2019 and it sits for sale along Highway 9, but nobody is interested in buying it.
That’s because the state Department of Ecology says underground gas tanks that were installed in the 1930’s had leaked and contaminated the soil.
He faces what could be a multi-million dollar clean-up bill and he’s not alone.
A Seattle Times investigation found 2,500 sites in Washington that Ecology says are contaminated, many of them old or forgotten gas stations.
Margolis says he’s worked hard to be a good steward of the environment and he’s being unfairly singled out.
He says the government didn’t conduct any oversight of gas stations for decades, and now wants to hold current property owners responsible for pollution they didn’t cause.
Listen to the full interview with Jeff Margolis on our Podcast page.