Man accused of pouring gasoline into well

By Rosa Duarte

Published: February 13, 2008

A man is in jail after investigators say he poured gasoline into a local well after a family dispute.
41 year old Larry Sylvester of Rural Retreat is charged with poisoning a well with intent to kill and destruction of property.
Wythe County investigators say the man living in the home connected to the well contacted them after noticing a funny smell in his water.
Emergency services crews checked the well behind his home and discovered close to an inch of gasoline floating on top of the water.
Crews spent their day Wednesday pumping the contaminated water out of the well and will take it to a facility in Winston Salem where they can get rid of it.
According to Dan Manweiler with the Department of Environmental Quality, there’s also a concern other area wells may have been contaminated as well. Those wells are now being monitored and samples have been taken on which their waiting for the results.
However, Manweiler says they have not received any other complaints.
If found guilty, investigators say Sylvester may have to pay for the cost of clean up, according to DEQ at this time it’s around two to four thousand dollars.