![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/2026_miami_petrol_polution_2500px.jpg\" "\\"Photo")
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Photo Illustration by Susan Merriam\/Miami Herald; Photos: Pedro Portal, National Petroleum News archival imagery; Documents: Florida Department of Environmental Protection <\/p>\n
\tPhoto Illustration by Susan Merriam\/Miami Herald; Photos: Pedro Portal, National Petroleum News archival imagery; Documents: FDEP<\/p>\n
\tViewing this story in our app?\t\tClick here\t<\/a>\tfor a better experience on our website.<\/p>\n Jorge Uribe, a luxury real estate agent, thought it would be an easy sale. The Morningside home sits in a gated community in Miami\u2019s Upper East Side near a prestigious private school, a waterfront park and in one of the country\u2019s hottest housing markets.<\/p>\n Instead, it\u2019s become one of the toughest properties to sell in his career.<\/p>\n Every potential buyer has to be told that a neighboring gas station leaked fuel 40 years ago, which spread to contaminate the groundwater beneath the home.<\/p>\n Even with assurances that the home\u2019s drinking water isn\u2019t affected and that the cleanup costs won\u2019t fall on a future owner, deals keep falling apart. He said he\u2019s lost 10 so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThey just walked away and walked away and walked away,\u201d Uribe said. \u201cNow we\u2019re down to 50 percent of the value as it would be if the property was clean.\u201d<\/p>\n The property \u2014 a 1930s duplex featuring a two-bedroom, one-bath main house with a Spanish barrel tile roof and a towering mango tree, plus two separate efficiencies \u2014 is one of many sites affected by gas leak contamination that became endemic during the 1980s. The problem was widespread throughout the county as gas stations used steel underground storage containers that were highly corrosive, especially in coastal communities. State-funded programs to clean up gas spills exist, but, in the case of this property, have proven to be ineffective and slow.<\/p>\n It was listed in 2024 for $1.9 million and should be \u201cflying off the shelf,\u201d Uribe said, given its potential to build four units up to three stories tall on the quarter-acre lot. Plus the house sits in a quiet historically-designated neighborhood along Biscayne Bay, surrounded by Mediterranean Revival-style houses shaded by palms, mahogany and oak trees draped in Spanish moss.<\/p>\n The home was once was owned by Dell Gardo, a Cuban immigrant who purchased it with money he earned performing in nightclubs and on cruise ships. Nearly four decades ago, he met comedian-ventriloquist Patrick Murray on a cruise and took him under his wing, beginning a 39-year friendship.<\/p>\n When Gardo died in 2024, he left the house to Murray with instructions to sell it and distribute the proceeds to family and friends.<\/p>\n But Murray worries about upholding his best friend\u2019s wishes.<\/p>\n As buyers walk away, the price keeps falling. Uribe now has it listed for $950,000. Most interested buyers see the house as a teardown, but get cold feet when they consider the Pandora\u2019s box they might be opening once they start trying to get permits.<\/p>\n And the pollution problem may still be an active issue. In March, the state found evidence of a new leak, which reported contamination levels higher than they\u2019ve been in three decades. The county gave Sunshine Gasoline, the current owner of the Chevron gas station and one of Florida\u2019s largest gas companies, about four months to produce an interim report and nine months to do a full investigation from the discovery in early March.<\/p>\n While the issue of who is to pay is debated, the homeowner is left to wait and suffer.<\/p>\n \u201cGas stations get a hall pass to pollute,\u201d Uribe said.<\/p>\n Groundwater tests in 1992 reveal gasoline was moving towards the Morningside house. <\/p>\n The tanks and dispenser system were monitored for leaks for decades. <\/p>\n Groundwater monitoring wells installed around the site show that, as recently as January, the groundwater beneath the home remained contaminated.<\/p>\n Some groundwater monitoring wells detected contamination levels higher than at any point since 1991, which the county believes may be due to a new leak.<\/p>\n \u2018Too big of a problem\u2019<\/p>\n Petroleum leaks were common in the 1980s, when underground storage tanks were typically made of single-walled steel. Along the coast, exposure to saltwater accelerated corrosion and fuel escaped from the rusty gas tanks and leaky pipes into the groundwater.<\/p>\n To some extent, nearly every gas station is polluting the ground beneath it, experts say.<\/p>\n \u201cMost places, it was just too big of a problem to really handle. You couldn\u2019t clean up every site,\u201d said Michael Sukop, Florida International University Earth and Environment professor.<\/p>\n Old Herald clippings from 1986 reported about homeowners toilets and sinks smelling like gas, a 3-year-old getting rashes and fevers from drinking the well water and fear of driers exploding. Hundreds of residents all over the state were forced to use bottled water or hook up to city water supplies, when available.<\/p>\n The state knew the problem was extensive, but wasn\u2019t sure where the leaks were. Many of the tanks were lost from both memory and records. In some cases, the new owners were not aware that the responsibility of the tanks had been transferred to them.<\/p>\n Even when they did know where they were, it was tricky and time-consuming getting oil companies and service stations to clean up. So the state offered amnesty in 1986 for the polluters to come forward and report their leaky tanks and the state would pay the clean up.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s initiative, called the Early Detection Incentive Program, is funded by a trust fund that can generate over $200 million a year from a tax on gas imports, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.<\/p>\n Miami-Dade County considers the program a success and has used the funds to facilitate clean-ups for 1237 leaks, according to the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management (DERM). In the late 1980\u2019s, Miami-Dade had hundreds of reports of new gas and diesel leaks. Last year, there were just eight, DERM reported.<\/p>\n For Murray, the program is moving too slowly \u2014 leaving him to bear the burden while gas stations receive publicly funded cleanups.<\/p>\n \u201cWe understand the concerns raised regarding the length of time involved in the remediation process at this property,\u201d said Loren Parra, director of DERM, noting the county, \u201cis not permitted to initiate full remediation activities until the State can allocate the necessary funding.\u201d<\/p>\n The Florida Department of Environmental Protection acknowledged the Herald\u2019s request for comment about clean up efforts near the Morningside house, but did not respond after multiple requests.<\/p>\n Over the past decade, the state has spent $54 million on cleanup efforts across the county, according to DERM.<\/p>\n There are currently 1,003 active leaks in Miami-Dade, according to data from DERM. There are 771 active state-funded sites and several programs being tapped to remediate gas leaks in addition to the Early Detection Incentive Program, which currently has 350 sites waiting for state funds to clean up.<\/p>\n \u201cI am quite hopeless and fear the inefficiency of this program will never get my property a clean bill of health,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n \tEarly Detection Incentive Program Sites in Miami-Dade<\/p>\n The county shared records with the Herald showing there are 350 sites in Miami-Dade County enrolled in a state-funded program that covers the full cost of petroleum clean up.<\/p>\n Source: Miami-Dade County<\/p>\n On March 6, DERM and its environmental consultant hired by the state sent a letter to Sunshine, determining that the new leak they found \u201cconstitutes violations.\u201d<\/p>\n Robert Fingar, an environmental lawyer representing Sunshine, said Sunshine is working with its own environmental consultants to check the state\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no confirmation of another leak,\u201d he wrote in an email to the Herald. \u201cThere was an issue in February with a component of the tank system, and Sunshine is working with its consultants to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n William Mayorga, an environmental engineer with DERM, said that despite the tank being 14 feet deep in the water table, it\u2019s low-risk because it\u2019s not close to any drinking or irrigation wells. Even so, the contamination still matters because the entire Biscayne Aquifer system is connected. Water \u2013 and any pollutants in it \u2013 can eventually travel through the aquifer and threaten future drinking supply.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Biscayne Aquifer, Miami-Dade County\u2019s primary source of drinking water, depends on aquifer recharge to maintain the water levels and ensure a sustainable supply to our drinking water and the health of our Biscayne Bay and ecosystem,\u201d Mayorga said.<\/p>\n Environmental experts say one gallon of gasoline could make one million gallons of water unsafe to drink.<\/p>\n Some experts warn that, over time, climate change could worsen these leaks across the county in one of the most fragile aquifers in the United States.<\/p>\n Climate change causes groundwater to rise by the coast, acting as a \u201chidden threat\u201d that exacerbates flooding risk by pushing the groundwater upward as sea levels increase.<\/p>\n Read more: From the sky, the ground, the sea. The three ways South Florida gets flooded<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cAs the water level rises, and we know it\u2019s rising, albeit slowly, these things can come all the way to the surface at some point, especially if it\u2019s floating product, that\u2019s a really dire circumstance,\u201d Sukop, the FIU professor, said.<\/p>\n The state has invested $416,000 into this particular site for monitoring and some clean-up efforts. The Early Detection Incentive Program does not have a cap on how much money it takes to clean a property.<\/p>\n In the late 1990s, contractors spent nearly four years using state funds to address the leak. They installed extraction wells, soil vacuums, pumps and air-water separators and reduced contamination levels to what officials classified as \u201cminimal.\u201d At one point, they were pumping contaminated groundwater at a rate of 61 gallons per minute, sending it through an air-stripping tower to evaporate pollutants.<\/p>\n Then funding halted as the state had to prioritize worse leaks.<\/p>\n When remediation ends too soon, contamination often rebounds, according to DERM officials. Even after years of cleanup, residual gasoline in the groundwater can migrate back into more \u201ctransmissive areas\u201d \u2014 where it spreads more easily.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what happened here.<\/p>\n In 2007, the gas station owners at the time, Europa Biscayne LLC, installed two new 15,000-gallon double-walled fiberglass tanks. But evidence of the original spill remained. Documents from Department of Environmental Protection noted, and smelled, floating fuel visible beneath the tanks.<\/p>\n By 2017, monitoring wells \u2014 narrow pipes drilled into the ground to test groundwater \u2014 confirmed that contamination had been migrating off-site.<\/p>\n Around that time, Murray\u2019s late friend Dell allowed county and state consultants to test on his property, where they installed monitoring wells. Other nearby properties, including the Cushman School, denied access for groundwater testing, according to Department of Environmental Protection documents. Representatives from the Cushman School did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The county shared with Murray a \u201cletter of comfort\u201d he could give potential buyers to let them know they are not responsible for the cleanup, and that the contamination is not a current risk.<\/p>\n But the letter also disclosed that construction would require close coordination with regulators to avoid spreading contamination \u2014 a process that adds time and cost.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just slows you down,\u201d Uribe said. \u201cAnd slow means money \u2013 you can\u2019t turn around and construct quickly. Developers will go somewhere else with less bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n If it does somehow spread during construction, the owner could be charged and held responsible for \u201csome portion of the site rehabilitation,\u201d Department of Environmental Protection documents say.<\/p>\n \u201cBuyers want proof that they can get building permits, develop the property and sell the units. This seems impossible with contaminated groundwater on-site,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n One buyer backed out after commissioning their own environmental report. Another said they couldn\u2019t afford to tie up capital without certainty.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have discretionary capital we could park here,\u201d he wrote to Murray in an email shared with the Herald.<\/p>\n He went on, \u201cThere\u2019s also a down gradient slope, which could result in more areas of the subject property being affected before it gets better. Tough to gauge how long it would take to have the site clear and I don\u2019t have the capital willing to spend further dollars without absolute certainty of a clean site.\u201d<\/p>\n They asked several lawyers what their legal options might be, but Murray couldn\u2019t afford the legal fees.<\/p>\n But one environmental attorney they consulted did offer to take the home off their hands for $250,000, Murray said.<\/p>\n Murray and Uribe considered holding the property for a few more years, hoping conditions would improve. But the family relying on the sale is getting older, so they kept it on the market.<\/p>\n There are signs of movement. This month, another buyer made an offer. Murray accepted.<\/p>\n The buyer recently finished the inspections, but Murray isn\u2019t holding his breath.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s still very much up in the air,\u201d Murray said. \u201cBut I\u2019m praying it goes through.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation and MSC Cruises in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.<\/p>\n Methodology\t<\/p>\n Miami-Dade County provided a list of sites of 350 sites waiting for state funds to be cleaned up with Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Early Detection Incentive (EDI) program. Using the provided FDEP facility identification numbers for each site location, we were able to assign GPS coordinates for most locations from a FDEP dataset of cleanup sites<\/a>. 57 sites had to be geocoded using a combination of Geoapify, GoogleMaps and referencing other FDEP documentation. We were not able to geocode six sites within the Miami International Airport area. <\/p>\n \tCredits\tAshley Miznazi | Climate Change Reporter\tSusan Merriam | Data Journalist\tPedro Portal | Photo Journalist\tAmy Reyes | Editor<\/p>\n![\"Jorge](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_100Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_100Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
Jorge Uribe, Senior VP of ONE Sotheby’s International Realty, stands in front of a duplex in the Morningside neighborhood that has been on the market for nearly two years. It would have been \u201cflying off the shelf\u201d if not for the contamination, he said. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The_Miami_Herald_1986_03_17_125.jpg\" "\\"The_Miami_Herald_1986_03_17_125.jpg\\"")
A Miami Herald article from 1986 shows where major contamination incidents occurred in South Florida at the time. A quote from a member of the Florida Petroleum Council at the time said, \u201cThe industry recognizes the problem, although we feel it has developed at no fault of our own. The steel tanks that are now leaking and corroded were considered state-of-the-art years ago.\u201d Newspapers.com <\/p>\n![\"In](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/underground_tanks.jpg\" "\\"underground_tanks.jpg\\"")
In 2007, four tanks underneath the gas station were replaced with two fiberglass tanks. During the excavation contractors noted free flowing gasoline in the water. Florida Department of Environmental Protection <\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_104Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_104Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
View of a monitoring well manhole cover in the grounds of a Chevron gas station located in the Morningside neighborhood in Miami, on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com Stalled remediation<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_101Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_101Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
View of a monitoring well manhole cover in the grounds of a residential home located in the Morningside neighborhood in Miami, on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com Letter of \u2018comfort\u2019<\/p>\n![\"View](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MIA_001Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\" "\\"MIA_001Gasleakhouse00NEWPPP.JPG\\"")
View of a residential house (far right) located next to a Chevron gas station (far left) both properties located in the Morningside neighborhood in Miami, on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n