The faulty UST is located at the city’s marina, where it is used to store fuel. Hannibal’s marina and docks, situated on the western edge of the Mississippi River, are an essential part of the historic community, which every year draws thousands of tourists from around the world.

Faulty USTs are an enormous environmental problem in the United States. Records kept by the Environmental Protection Agency indicate that hundreds of thousands of tanks throughout the country have leaked or continue to leak fuel and other hazardous substances. Just one gallon of fuel will pollute one million gallons of water — a sobering fact considering Hannibal’s faulty tank sits on America’s most vital waterway.

According to a report in the Quincy Herald-Whig, regulators cited Hannibal for three violations: failure to properly conduct and maintain corrosion protection; failure to comply with temporary closure requirements; and failure to permanently close a substandard underground storage tank.

Chris Atkinson, director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, told the Herald-Whig that last summer’s floods are to blame for the tank’s condition. During the floods, electricity that ran a 24-hour monitoring system on the gas dock was cut off. Electricity also powered a system that protected the tank’s pipes from rusting. The flood also removed the gas dock from its moorings, thereby forcing the city to disconnect electrical and gas lines.

To fix the problem, Hannibal can stop selling gas at the marina completely, install an above-ground tank, or install a new UST. Whatever is done, the solution will prove to be costly. Putting in a new UST would cost approximately $50,000.

“No matter what we do, there’s going to be a cost, and frankly none of this is in the budget,” Atkinson told the Herald-Whig.

The city is currently repairing the flood-damaged docks, a project that FEMA estimates will cost more than $240,000. That total, however, does not include replacing the old UST.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › ‘Tom Sawyer’ city cited for underground storage tank violations

The old tanks are made of steel, which is highly corrosive. The underground tanks were especially prone to rust, thereby allowing the fuel to leak out into the surrounding earth.

Pat Coyne, director of business development for Environmental Data Resources, Inc. said that steel tanks tend to rot like “Swiss cheese,” according to a report by the Associated Press.

The rusting tanks and other programs once administered by the Civil Defense Preparedness Agency became FEMA’s responsibility after the agency was formed. Decades later, the agency is still trying to inventory the tanks it owns – now numbering more than 2,000. The agency still doesn’t know the exact geographical locations of some of the tanks, whether they are above ground or underground, or whether they are leaking. The paper trail tied to the tanks spans several decades and hands. No evidence to date suggests that these government-owned underground storage tanks (USTs) have created environmental or health problems because of leakage.

But the government tanks, which FEMA and the FCC have tossed back and forth like a hot potato of  responsibility, are just one part of a much more massive problem: the existence of more than half a million USTs holding fuel and oil buried throughout the country. No one knows exactly how many of the tanks could be leaking.

USTs that leak diesel or other fuel can easily contaminate the groundwater. It takes just one gallon of diesel fuel to effectively contaminate one million gallons of water, putting people at risk for cancer, kidney damage, nervous system disorders and a number of other health hazards.

FEMA has worked to repair and or replace some of the tanks since the 1990s. Others have been removed or filled with sand. But many of the tanks, including many suspected leakers, have yet to be removed. More modern tanks must be made of leak-proof polymers and have a leak detection system.

FEMA spokesman Dan Stoneking told the AP that it is working to fix the problem of all the leaking tanks under its jurisdiction. “We are committed to upholding our obligations to remediate, remove or upgrade them as necessary,” he told the AP. “We believe in adhering to any relevant environmental rule or law and will do so.”

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › leaking fuel tanks: a cold war legacy