Conoco gas station in Camden, N.J. shuts down again after drivers left stranded

CAMDEN, New Jersey (WPVI) -- An investigation continues after more than a dozen drivers were stranded after pumping contaminated gas at a Conoco gas station in Camden, New Jersey.

Employees of the gas station at 1901 Admiral Wilson Boulevard say they stopped selling gas around 5 p.m. Sunday after some reports of breakdowns came in.

Camden city officials believe 14 vehicles may have been impacted.

By Monday morning, zip ties were on the pumps to make sure no one could use them, and officials told Action News the station will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Camden officials believe the gasoline contamination is likely to be a result of heavy rainfall seeping into underground storage tanks.

However, officials are waiting for test results to come back to make a final determination as to what happened.

Back on Jan. 10, at this same Conoco station, water seeped into the gas tanks after a winter storm.

According to officials, the fuel was found to contain 58% water and the city issued a $25,000 fine.

"There was a lot of mechanisms that had failed, a lot of negligence by the attendants ignoring the alarms," said Judith Lugo, Superintendent of Camden's Division of Weights and Measures.

The gas station was allowed to resume operations after it passed an inspection and follow-up sample tests.

Many drivers are hoping for compensation.

"As of right now I hope they're able to compensate us for at least the gas and, as far as repairs go, I don't know what exactly they plan on doing for that. But I can tell you they're going to have a bit of trouble on their hands with this," said Tyler Ebert of Mahanoy Plane, Pa.

City officials say to keep any and all receipts and records if you visited the gas station on Sunday.

"First thing you should do is contact the business owner or the manager and try to resolve it. If they will not resolve it then you can contact weights and measures," said Lugo.

To report an incident, residents can call the Camden County Division of Weights and Measures at 856-374-6001 or the Camden City Division of Weights and Measures at 856-757-7131.

We've reached out to the owners of the gas station several times on Monday and we're still waiting to hear back.