EXCLUSIVE: Water in gasoline, 2 gas stations work to fix issue

Apr 25, 2024

by: Taylor King

Posted: Mar 8, 2023 / 07:40 PM EST

Updated: Mar 9, 2023 / 04:03 AM EST

OSSIAN, Ind. (WANE)- After excessive rain on March 3, two gas stations experienced their worst nightmare: water mixed in with their gasoline. More than 80 customers had car troubles due to the issue.

The Ossian All-American Marathon and the Hoagland All-American Marathon noticed the issue around 8:30 last Friday night and by 10:30 Saturday morning pumps needed to be shut off.

Owner of the Ossian station, Adam Dager, said this kind of problem hasn’t happened in more than 10 years.

“We had reports of a couple of customers who has water in their fuel, we went back to check the water gage it was at 10.54 inches, which is a lot,” said Dager.

A short time later, Dager received a call from the manager of the Ossian Marathon saying there was water in their fuel, but only 1.54 inches. The water in the gasoline in Ossian was lower because it was the next day but, this location deals with twice the amount of customers than the Hoagland location.

During this time, both the Ossian and the Hoagland gas stations could only pump premium and diesel fuel. They later found that a small bolt that came loose was the the issue for the Ossian Marathon. For the Hoagland Marathon, a yellow tank monitor lid came loose.

From there, Dager and his Manager Tyler Nees made personal phone calls to each customer who has experienced this and filed a complaint.

“Customers are my heart, they are my heart beat and it is what fuels me more than anything else making sure that they are taken care,” Dager said “Making sure the customers are taken care of is at the heart of everything, if it is a repair bill, if it is a tow, if it’s a recommendation of what to do,” Dager explained.

Dager says he would not be able to help every single one of his customers if it wasn’t for the local repair business across the street lending a helping hand.

“Adam reached out and I said absolutely we will work with him do whatever we need to do just get all of our customers back on the road because a lot of our customers over there are our customers,” said Jon Sherburne, Manager at Welches All Vehicle Repair.

The Hoagland Marathon still is unable to pump unleaded gas and are hoping to get that gas station back up and running by Thursday.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.