Underground storage tank

The Navajo inspectors are also authorized to issue citations for tanks that do not meet federal EPA criteria for safety. Fines for problematic tanks, normally ranging from $500 to $3,000, encourage tank owners to bring and keep their tanks into compliance with U.S. regulations.

Federally recognized Native American tribes exist as sovereign entities, yet they are still subject to federal laws. According to the EPA’s UST / LUST National Native American Lands directive, “Underground storage tanks located on tribal lands generally are not subject to state laws. As a result, unless a state acts as a tribe’s agent pursuant to a formal agreement with a tribe, EPA and the tribe are responsible for implementing and enforcing the UST program on tribal lands.”

The EPA estimates that approximately 6,000 USTs are buried on Native American land. Most of the USTs on native lands are concentrated in the western half of the country, especially in the EPA’s Region 8, which includes the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah. Tanks buried on Navajo land are generally concentrated in the Arizona, California, and Nevada region in an area about the size of West Virginia. EPA estimates there are 200 tanks on Navajo land.

Preventing underground storage tanks from leaking is one of the EPA’s top priorities. Such tanks usually hold fuel, motor oil, and other environmentally hazardous substances. In just one year, 400 gallons of fuel can be released into the ground and water from a single hole the size of a pinhead. Just one gallon of fuel will make one million gallons of water unsafe for human and animal consumption. Hundreds of thousands of USTs are buried throughout the country, many of them older, single-layered steel tanks that have corroded over time.

The EPA hopes that its pilot program on the Navajo Nation will serve as a model for other tribes nationwide.

New storage tanks must be equipped with spill and overfill protection and leak detection equipment. They must also be double lined and made of corrosion-resistant polymers. Leaks and spills that are promptly detected are far easier and less expensive to clean up, the EPA says.

Source: http://www.eponline.com/articles/71515/

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › EPA trains Navajo Nation UST inspectors

According to the report, 442 people in the southern Colorado town of Alamosa became violently ill after drinking the city’s tap water, which tests revealed to be positive for a potent strain of the salmonella virus. A survey conducted in the community, however, found that 20 percent of Alamosa’s residents, about 2,000 people, experienced gastrointestinal illness at the time of the salmonella outbreak.

Alamosa, like many small towns throughout the country, draws water for the municipal supply from deep underground aquifers. Water drawn from aquifers is purified by natural processes, thereby eliminating or at least diminishing the need to chlorinate the water.

The process is perfectly safe, unless the clean water is diverted to an underground storage tank containing several holes and cracks, which was the case in Alamosa.

According to health inspectors who examined the tank, farm animals likely defecated on the ground over or near the water tank. As winter snow melted, toxic salmonella bacteria from the feces entered the holes and cracks in the concrete tank.

The salmonella bacteria debilitated many residents of the town, some of whom missed days or weeks of work. Salmonella typically hits younger children and older adults the hardest. In Alamosa, the outbreak is blamed for the death of 55-year-old Larry Velasquez, whose body was already weakened by previous illness.

Although dozens of claims have been filed against the city, many of the city’s residents will have no legal recourse. Colorado state law sets a six-month deadline for filing damage claims against municipalities. The outbreak in Alamosa occurred last year.

Don Koskelin, Alamosa’s public-works director, told the Denver Post that state inspectors who analyzed Alamosa’s water system prior to the outbreak failed to check the underground tank carefully.

“Did he do a detailed inspection of the tank? No, he did not,” Koskelin told the Denver Post.

Colorado’s drinking water program manager, Ron Falco, told the Post that the inspector failed to inspect the tank because a city operator told him that the drinking water system would be replaced in six months.

Alamosa now has a new drinking water distribution system. It also chlorinates all of the tap water.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Contaminated water from UST sickens Colorado town