Record Rains Beautify Oklahoma But Lead To Water In Your Gas Tank

With the record rains Oklahoma has had this spring across the state come a bunch of bonuses.

While farmers may have complained a little about harvest conditions, any moisture in our loamy soils is a good thing in the long run. The whole state is unbelievably green, our highways are a vibrant display of native wildflowers, and most of the lakes are either full or well over that point.

But with the good comes a little bad. 

Flooding has been a large problem across the state. Hailstorms and tornadoes have affected hundreds of thousands. Many Oklahoma waterways are experiencing an E. coli outbreak due to the rains, and even more Oklahomans are being affected by water-contaminated fuel at their local gas stations.

It's not that gas stations are trying to cut their fuel to make more per gallon at the pump, but with so much water, especially in flood-prone areas, water is finding its way into the underground storage tanks.

It's bound to happen sometimes. 

Because it's so expensive and such a headache to fix, no gas station wants water infiltrating the storage tanks, but it happens with heavy rain due to the design.

Since they're underground for both safety and temperature stabilization, they're all filled through literal holes in the parking lot.

Some stations do build the concrete up around these fill-ports, but most do not. It seems the inconvenience of consumers having to slow down to roll over veritable speed bumps creates a habit for people to avoid stopping in at all.

On the plus side, if you buy a tank of bad gas, you likely know it immediately. Fuel floats on water, so it'll be the first thing your vehicle sends to the engine when you start your car and drive off. You may make it a few blocks, or you might find yourself stranded in the parking lot. It's a dice roll.

Luckily, most stations are forthcoming and very willing to help fix the issues. Well, corporately controlled large companies are, they don't want their companies to develop a bad reputation. It's the smaller, locally-owned stations that tend to push back... that's probably why they almost all have reputations...

As Oklahoma dries out, this will become a problem that once was across the Sooner State. Onward and upward.