The large drilling rig parked in front of East Tennessee Tire Company is not exploring for oil or gas, but property owner Mike Crowell probably wishes it was.

 

Motorists noticed the three-story boom of the M&W Drilling Company truck out of Knoxville on Monday, and it continued drilling on Tuesday in the rain.

 

Theta Technologies, Inc., of Oak Ridge, is drilling four ground water monitoring wells because the business property formerly included underground gasoline tanks.

 

Crowell said these were removed more than 20 years ago when his late father, Floyd Crowell, bought the old Kyker Motor Company property at auction. He spent tens of thousands of dollars removing abandoned tanks, some of which may have leaked petroleum products.

 

The current testing is not a liability for East Tenn. Tire, said Crowell, as it is being done by the state of Tennessee Dept. of Environment and Conservation.

 

William Davis III, a geologist and specialist in environmental services, with Theta Technologies, was examining core samples early Tuesday morning. He said that the samples would be sent to a laboratory for testing.

 

"I don't think there has been any gasoline pumped here since the early 1980s," said Crowell. He speculated the project was covered under the state's Superfund for environmental cleanup work.

 

Davis said that once all the samples had been taken, metal well caps would be placed on the four 18-foot-deep wells so it would be easy to retest the soil in the future.