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ANCHORAGE - The drinking water system in a town on an island in the Bering Sea a few dozen miles from Siberia remained shut down Thursday over fears it is contaminated with gasoline.

The problem in Gambell on St. Lawrence Island was discovered when the operator of the Gambell Water Plant reported to state officials on Tuesday that the well house smelled of gasoline and water in the well had a sheen.

No source for the sheen has been determined, but an empty 1-gallon can that had contained gasoline was found near the well.

Officials in Gambell, population about 670, are working with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to determine if the well and the water storage tanks are contaminated.

Lee Johnson, a DEC environmental engineer in Fairbanks working on the problem, said the exact nature of the contamination isn't known for certain, but Gambell officials are working on the assumption that gasoline somehow got into the well.

That can't be confirmed until water tests can be done, he said.

The state is hopeful that the sheen is not fuel. While petroleum products will form a sheen on water, there could be other causes, Johnson said. The water in Gambell has iron bacteria in it and that, too, can form a sheen. The truth won't be known until water testing can be conducted, he said.

That objective was thwarted by bad weather Thursday morning that prevented a DEC spill responder from Nome from getting to the island. A person from the Norton Sound Health Corp. also was stuck on the mainland when the flight was canceled. Gambell is 200 miles southwest of Nome.

Gambell residents in the meantime have access to water, Johnson said.

The town has three water storage tanks. Two of the tanks are used for storing untreated water. The other one holds filtered and disinfected water. It appears that one of the storage tanks was not in operation when the problem arose and therefore would not be contaminated, Johnson said.

Officials are investigating the possibility of using the untreated water in the one tank to flush the system. While that water would not be drinkable, it could be used for other things such as flushing toilets and washing hands.

In the meantime, residents have a lake and other sources they can use until the problems at the water plant can be fixed. Residents are being told to boil water before drinking it.