Santa Rosa auto shop may face charges over chemical spill that sickened neighbors

<p>A Santa Rosa Avenue auto repair shop may face criminal charges stemming from an incident in which someone reportedly hosed a chemical spill into a neighboring yard, sending the family who lived there to the emergency room, authorities said.</p><p>Santa Rosa fire and police officials began investigating the Jan. 17 incident after several inches of contaminated water flooded the neighbor's back yard, exposing an 8-year-old boy to fumes that caused him to vomit 18 times over the next three days, his father said.</p><p>The rest of the family suffered nausea, dizziness and light-headedness that sent them to the hospital, as well. </p><p>Their back yard is now cratered while crews clear out contaminated soil. The family's above-ground pool has been drained and ruined, as well.</p><p>The fire department has cited Accu Tune & Brake for three permit violations, including unauthorized release of hazardous materials, failure to report the release of hazardous materials, and failure to comply with an order to clean it up, Deputy Fire Chief Tony Gossner said.</p><p>Though the investigation is ongoing, police expect to forward a case to the District Attorney's Office seeking criminal charges, police Sgt. Mike Lazzarini said.</p><p>Police and fire personnel, as well as Safety-Kleen representative Dan Wienholz, who has been contracted by the city to sample and analyze soil from the neighbor's yard, declined to discuss specific findings, pending completion of the investigation. But Bryan Musco, hired to excavate the site, said he understood the main contaminant was gasoline.</p><p>Approached at the shop Friday, Satyajit Patel, identified by police and others as the business owner, began to say that the spill occurred when someone washed engine parts on a bench at the back of the store instead of in a parts-washing basin. </p><p>He then excused himself, and when he returned said he was only the shop manager and had been told by the owner not to comment.</p><p>Sebastopol Avenue resident Brian St. Louis, who rents the house around the corner from Accu Tune with his fiancee, Jessica Cornwell, said he discovered the spill late in the afternoon Jan. 17 when he went out back to light the barbecue.</p><p>He said he clearly smelled something like gasoline and quickly realized his son Roland, 8, was playing basketball in two to three inches of water that had suddenly filled the yard inexplicably.</p><p>St. Louis said he stuck his finger in the water to verify his fears, sent the boy off to shower and walked around to the repair shop to discuss the matter with Patel, with whom he'd previously had a friendly relationship.</p><p>Patel denied responsibility for the spill, though it later became apparent someone had hosed off the pavement behind the shop near the fence on the side of St. Louis' yard, he and Gossner said.</p><p>Fire inspectors were called to investigate and ordered Patel to hire a contractor to test and clear the contaminated soil. </p><p>But a day or two later, when he still hadn't done so, officials said, the city hired an excavator who has cleared out much of the soil in the back yard, up to four feet deep.</p><p>Looking back, St. Louis said he remembered numerous times last year when he watered his then newly landscaped back yard and the next day would find it looking far wetter than it should have, given how much water he used. He wonders now if that water came from next door.</p><p>St. Louis has consulted a civil attorney to pursue a case against Accu Tune.</p><p>Musco, meanwhile, was back with his backhoe/loader Friday — releasing the odor of gasoline into the air once again — after the latest round of soil samples “came back hot,” meaning more of the yard needs removal.</p><p>Musco already had filled three 8-cubic-yard bins and was on his fourth, hoping to finish and get a lining of Visqueen down before rains come Monday.</p>