Since 1957, Mansfield Oil Co. has been delivering petroleum to gas stations all over North Georgia.

But the company's job is more than just putting gas in an underground storage tank. In fact, it's Chet Davis' job to not only to make sure the 1.5 billion gallons of fuel delivered nationwide each year gets there efficiently, but to also plan where new storage tanks go, and make sure all environmental regulations are followed.

Davis is the director of fuel systems and services for Mansfield Oil, where a knowledge of geology and the environment go hand-in-hand with an understanding of distribution routes.

Question: What does your job entail?

Answer: We do everything from customer relations to project management (planning sites at new gas stations). There's really three parts around fuel that we deal with at Mansfield. One is the delivery of fuel, so when you see the big fuel tanker trucks going down the road, that's called fuel transport and delivery. The other part is fuel storage, and the third part is dispensing.

So the storage part is with retail, where you and I would go and fill up our vehicles, where there's tanks underground that have fuel in them. Then there's the dispensing, what makes it come out of the ground and into our cars and all the equipment involved around that. We design, construct and install the fueling systems both for commercial and retail fuel dispensing.

Q: What type of education do you have?

A: I got a Bachelor of Science degree in geology and a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental science.

Q: What role do you play in protecting the environment?

A: Being in the delivery business, when trucks go up and down the roads, we have to prevent spills. If a spill should happen or if they get in a wreck or get to a site and spill in the transfer process, there's reporting and regulatory requirements around that to prevent or to respond to it. We have to comply with regulations in storing the fuel and dispensing the fuel. So my team does two things: we build fuel system installations and we manage the compliance around that process.

Q: Why is your job as an environmental regulator so important in the fuel industry?

A: In the early days of fuel, everyone's perspective of it was it came out of the ground so it can't hurt to spill it and leak it if it goes back into the ground. That was back in the '60s and '70s, but as the environmental movement got more traction and more people became educated on the impact of releases of refined petroleum products, then more regulations were developed to reduce impact to ground water, soil and sensitive habitat areas. A lot of rules and regulations were initiated for anyone who has to do with fuel like we do, with the supply, storage and dispensing of fuel. We now have to make sure we're in compliance with those rules to keep that environment as clean as possible. If we don't comply, a lot of people would have a lot of fines.