This week cleanup contractors will be meeting with officials and local residents to sum up what they've learned about the extent of the leak, the damage it has caused and what's been done so far to clean it up. In coming weeks, a cleanup contractor for Wind River Petroleum, the company that owned the leaky convenience store tank, will be required by state regulators to propose a long-term plan to address the gas fumes.

The leak has been a challenge for the engineers and cleanup crews because it moved farther - and faster - than expected.

But the frustration has been worst for people who live and work downtown. Several families have been driven out of their homes by the strong smell of gasoline, and at least six businesses have been shuttered, including an historic theater, which had operated continuously for more than nine decades until fumes forced its closure.

Last month, the Utah Medical Association raised a concern that has been on the minds of many since the August leak: "a seeming lack of progress and/or speed" in the cleanup. The group pointed out in its Dec. 13 letter to Rick Sprott, director of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), that gasoline contains the cancer-causing chemical benzene and that Gunnison residents have not received any data on their exposure.

"We understand that some initial reports of benzene levels may have recently been reported to certain individual businesses/homes but have not been reported to the city or even to the DEQ," wrote Mark N. Bair, UMA president. "This lack of information has people in Gunnison and their physicians worried."

The letter urges DEQ to make sure the data are collected and publicly reported.

"In addition to the obvious interest in this information by Gunnison residents, their doctors need to know if their patients have been or are being exposed to dangerous levels of this toxic substance," the Bair letter concludes.

Some answers are expected at meetings this week.

A representative from U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon's office will receive a briefing today on the leak and cleanup. The community will hear from the cleanup contractors and state and local officials at 7 p.m., Thursday, at Gunnison City Hall, 38 West Center.

The city has a Web site with information about the leak at www.gunnisoncity.org/gas.htm.

fahys@sltrib.com

Testing continues on gasoline leak

* 100: Approximate number of tests with a hand-held organic vapor meter in Gunnison homes

* 59: In businesses

* 19: In utility manholes

* 9: Number of homes with confirmed vapor problems

* Unknown: Proximity to the San Pitch River

Source: Remedy, Inc., letter to Utah Department of Environmental Quality on Dec. 13