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The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is using part of the $6.1 million in federal stimulus money it received to remove three leaking underground storage tanks in Union Township, according to a report in the Herald-Standard. The tanks in Union Township, located in the southwestern corner of the state, are only 3 of 71 tanks slated for removal statewide this year.
In the United States, Florida has some of the toughest state laws governing the ownership and maintenance of underground storage tanks. In just a few months, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection will enforce its Dec. 31, 2009 deadline for all single-wall USTs and piping to be replaced with modern, double-wall tanks and pipes. Then, on Jan. 21, 2010, the agency’s deadline for replacing above-ground tanks without underlying spill containment systems arrives.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with the Frederick County, Maryland, board of county commissioners over multiple violations of federal underground storage tank regulations. According to the EPA, Frederick County owns and operates three underground storage tanks, yet it failed to uphold federal regulations and safety measures designed to protect the land and water from becoming contaminated by substances released from underground tanks.
A leaking underground storage tank on the premises of an old, defunct gas station in Keswick, Virginia, demonstrates how destructive a seemingly innocuous fuel tank leak can be. A report by Charlottesville News & Arts tells the story of David and Holli Traud, who bought a brand-new home just east of Charlottesville last year. However, when they moved in, they noticed that the tap water in their new home had a strange smell and bad taste.
In a 3-1 vote, California’s State Water Resources Control Board approved legislation that will require motor fuels containing more than 20 percent biodiesel to be stored in above ground tanks. It seems strange that regular petroleum diesel can be stored in underground tanks while “green” fuel must be stored above ground for fear of leakage and possible environmental contamination. But California has a law mandating that underground storage tanks be independently certified as leak proof before they can be used to store new types of fuel, such as high-grade biodiesels. That testing and certification process can take as long as three years.
Forty-five neighbors from a Pennsylvania community that was contaminated by a massive fuel leak more than a decade ago are still fighting for justice. Many residents of Blue Bell, a town in Montgomery County, Penn., became sick in the late 1990s after consuming water contaminated by several thousand gallons of gasoline released from an underground storage tank at a local Gulf gas station. All of the affected people had wells or access to wells.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that the U.S. Army has agreed to pay nearly $30,000 in civil penalties for violating the agency’s underground storage tank (UST) regulations. To help prevent future tank leakage, the Army also agreed to spend nearly $210,000 on upgrading its facilities at Aberdeen Proving Ground, a weapons testing facility in northeastern Maryland.
Back in March we talked about how the money in Illinois’ Underground Storage Tank Fund was being spent for other purposes under the Blagojevich administration, leaving some businesses that performed extensive (and expensive) tank cleanup work for the state high and dry. Now state representative John Cavaletto (R-Salem) has introduced a bill to the legislature that would protect the state’s UST fund from future sweeps and transfers. Illinois’ House bill 770 underscores the importance of maintaining a fund for UST cleanup.
Victor, a town just outside Rochester, New York, is being sued by the owners of a Pontillo’s Pizzeria, a regional franchise that owns and operates a restaurant just next to the town’s newly constructed town hall. The plaintiffs say workers involved in the construction of the new town hall building ruptured underground storage tanks containing fuel, which polluted their land. According to a report by MPNnow of Rochester, the suit was filed this month in New York’s Supreme Court for an unspecified amount of damages.
Cleanup efforts are underway at the site of a former gas station in Marshfield, Massachusetts. A Gulf gas station once occupied the site but was demolished in the late 1990s. Tests conducted on the property revealed the soil and water to be contaminated by fuel. The city of Marshfield is using $50,000 in funds from Massachusetts’ Leaking Underground Storage Tank Release Prevention Program to pay Coler & Colantonio, an environmental engineering firm that is assessing the extent of damage to the land and water table on the site. The city and civic groups plan to convert the land into a park.
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