The company agreed to pay $22,758 to settle alleged violations of UST regulations designed to prevent, detect, and control fuel leaks from underground tanks. With hundreds of thousands of USTs throughout the country leaking fuel and other hazardous substances, curbing environmental contamination caused by such releases is one of the EPA’s top initiatives.

According to EPA records, more than 3,000 known leaking USTs await cleanup in Pennsylvania alone. The agency has recorded cleanups of more than 11,000 tanks to date.

From May 2006 to Nov. 2007, the 7-Eleven in Cranberry Township failed to perform automatic line leak detector testing annually on four 8,000-gallon tanks holding gasoline and diesel fuel and one 5,000-gallon tank containing kerosene. The same location also failed to perform line tightness tests of underground piping on the 5 tanks for a few months in 2007.

The Pittsburgh location also failed to perform automatic line leak detector tests and line tightness tests on its 5 tanks from Dec. 1, 2003 to Aug. 2007, 3 months in 2006, and 2 months in 2007.

“As part of the settlement, the company neither admitted nor denied liability for the alleged violations, but certified its compliance with applicable UST regulations. The settlement reflects the company’s cooperation with EPA’s investigation, and good faith compliance efforts,” the EPA announced.

“Leaking tanks are a major source of soil and groundwater contamination,” the EPA said in its statement. “EPA and state UST regulations are designed to reduce the risk of underground leaks and to promptly detect and properly address leaks which do occur, thus minimizing environmental harm and avoiding the costs of major cleanups,” the agency said.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › EPA settles with Penn company over multiple UST violations

Beasley Allen

In August of 2007, Taylor and her husband noticed the strong odor of gasoline on their property, accompanied by a petroleum sheen on the surface water that had accumulated on the property. They contacted the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) for assistance. ADEM sent an environmental contractor to Taylor’s property to install monitoring wells and collect soil and water samples.

The testing revealed that fuel from the Speedmart’s tanks had been released, extensively contaminating the plaintiff’s soil, surface water, and groundwater with a number of highly toxic chemicals. Levels of the chemicals benzene and MTBE exceeded the maximum contaminant level in the collected samples.

The lawsuit alleges that the Speedmart’s leaking UST caused substantial and permanent loss of value to Taylor’s property. According to the suit, the defendants were responsible in making sure their fuel tanks were leak-proof, which they failed to do in 2007 and previously in June of 1998. The lawsuit charges Chatham Oil with negligence, wantonness, trespass, nuisance, and strict liability in failing their duty to properly maintain and inspect the USTs.

The removal and cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks is a main initiative of the Environmental Protection Agency, which recently received $200 million in federal stimulus money to allocate amongst states, territories, and Indian land for UST inspection and cleanup.

The U.S. has hundreds of thousands of USTs beneath its cities, towns, and suburbs. A hole the size of a pinhead will allow as much as 400 gallons of fuel to leak through the walls of a UST in just one year, contaminating 400 million gallons of fresh water.

Read the complaint.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Alabama woman sues oil company over land contaminated by leaky UST

According to EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, the agency is “providing immediate growth opportunities across the nation, as well as long-term protection from dangerous pollution in the land and water.”

“EPA is putting people to work by serving our core mission of protecting human health and the environment,” Jackson explained.

Hundreds of thousands of storage tanks are buried throughout the country. Many of the tanks, some of which are several decades old, continue to leak fuel and other environmentally hazardous substances into the soil and groundwater. A hole the size of a pin head can release as many as 400 gallons of fuel into the ground and water table in one year, and 1 gallon of fuel renders 1 million gallons of water unpotable for humans and wildlife.

Nearly half of all Americans get their drinking water from underground sources – a fact that makes the identification and removal of leaking USTs imperative.

Removal of a leaking tank and cleanup of the contaminated area is a typically an expensive task. While liability for the tanks (and all removal and cleanup costs) normally falls on the tank owners, sometimes the EPA has to assume the expense of assessing, removing tanks, and cleaning up when the “responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the cleanup is an emergency response.”

Nearly $191 million of the stimulus money will go to all U.S. states and territories for leaking UST removal and environmental cleanup. $6.3 million will fund assessment and cleanup of sites in Indian territory. $3 million will be retained by the EPA for management and oversight.

Click here for more Information about UST program funding and the EPA’s implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act .

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › EPA receives $200 million in stimulus money for UST removal, cleanup

“This water tastes funny,” former Marine John Hartung remembers thinking when he spent 6 months at Camp Lejeune in 1977, according to a report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They said that’s how it tastes down here,” Hartung told the Journal Sentinel.

After months of drinking the water on base and showering and swimming in it, Hartung developed cysts on his neck. He also started noticing that many other fellow Marines were afflicted with cysts and rashes. More than 30 years later, Hartung battles chronic fatigue and other ailments that prevent him from working.

Now it’s Hartung’s mission to spread the word about Camp Lejeune’s toxic past. He launched a website that seeks to educate others about the problem.

“I want to see people get their benefits and to say, ‘I was poisoned, but at least they took care of me and my family,’” Hartung told the Journal Sentinel.

Research of the camp’s water problems yielded some disturbing patterns in the health of those who once lived at the camp. Incidences of cancer, birth defects, and illnesses in children born on base were much higher during the period of time when the groundwater was tainted.

The Marines Corps is working to contact everyone who might have been affected by the poisonous water. It has established a website and call center to handle the issue. It is also getting the word out through direct mail, coordinating with local and national media, and informing veterans groups.

The full Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, which includes accounts of other Marines sickened by Camp Lejeune’s water supply, can be viewed here.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Camp Lejeune’s toxic water supply may have sickened half a million

“I feel very strongly that dedicated funds should be left alone so they can serve the purpose they were meant to serve,” John Cavaletto (R-Salem) told the House Government Committee, according to a report in the Mt. Vernon Register-News.

“Here we have honest, hard working people doing a service for our state in cleaning up dangerous leaking storage tanks and the State of Illinois refuses to honor its obligations. Something needs to be done to ensure that these people are getting paid for the work they do on behalf of the state.”

According to the Register-News, Cavaletto’s documents indicated that more than $54 million has been siphoned from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank fund since 2003, the year that Rod Blagojevich became the 40th governor of Illinois.

Jay Koch, owner of United Science Industries, had the opportunity to confront Blagojevich in November of last year. Blagojevich promised Koch reimbursements, but shortly after the encounter, the governor was arrested and booted from office.

“It’s forced me to take on their debt,” Koch told the Register-News. “The state has forced their debts onto the balance sheet of business and small business. It’s very disheartening. Unlike a private party, who, if they fail to pay you, you have some recourse against. The way our state system is set up, we don’t have any recourse against the state. We’re forced to sit on the side and deal with whatever they throw at you. They don’t have to play by the same rules they set up for everyone else,” Koch said in the Register-News report.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 17,188 leaking underground storage tank cleanups have been completed in Illinois. However, nearly 7,000 known leaking tanks remain in the backlog awaiting cleanup.

If Illinois has spent all its LUST funds for other purposes, where will it get the money to remove the tanks that continue to pollute the surrounding soil and water? Assuming Koch’s company can stay afloat in all of the state’s bad debt, he may find some relief with the passage of a new Illinois state bill that amends the Environmental Protection Act and would prohibit the sweeping of money from one state fund to another. While the bill wouldn’t necessarily replenish funds already moved and spent or make Illinois current on payments, it could spell much future work for United Science Industries. Also, a protected LUST fund would in turn protect Illinois residents and wildlife from exposure to environmental toxins.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Leaking underground tank funds used for other purposes in Illinois

Single wall steel tanks are prone to corrosion, especially when they contain highly caustic liquids such as fuel. With hundreds of thousands of leaking storage tanks buried underground throughout the country, identifying and removing the tanks has been a major initiative of the US Environmental Protection Agency and many state environmental agencies.

The cost of replacing the tanks, however, is extremely prohibitive – especially for the mom and pop operations. The average cost of replacing a single underground storage tank is $250,000. Gas stations with multiple tanks can expect a bill of about $400,000. Aside from the expense itself, the trouble for many small and independent gas station owners is acquiring financing for the job.

“Even banks that our stations have had a long relationship with are not going to loan them $250,000 for an asset that nobody can see,” said one gas station owner to the Orlando Sentinel, adding that in the bank’s eyes, the upgrade would not result in greater income.

The requirement has caused the value of older gas stations to plummet. Any new owners would have to replace the tanks before they could sell gas. If they chose not to sell gas, the new owners would still be liable for the old tanks. Federal law requires station owners to have a $1 million insurance policy. At the same time, many underwriters have stopped insuring stations with single-wall tanks, forcing some stations to stop selling gas or close their doors.

According to Mike Ashley of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, gas station owners have had ample time to prepare for the big switch. He reminded all facilities requiring upgrades that the upgrade rules have been in effect since 1991 – ample time to prepare and comply.

Gas station owners hoping there might be a reprieve or extension of the Dec. 31 deadline are likely to be disappointed. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has not granted an extension for upgrades since 1983, when it became one of the first states to establish UST regulations.

Even a very slow leak from a UST is an environmental hazard. Just one gallon of fuel will contaminate one million gallons of water and the surrounding soil, endangering the health of humans and wildlife.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Deadline looms for Florida gas station underground storage tanks

What’s leaking?
Most underground storage tanks leak gasoline, and the main chemicals of concern are benzene, toluene, and ethylbenzene. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has established levels of these chemicals “where it is known that there is no risk to the health to all individuals.”

Adverse health effects are only seen if exposures to these chemicals are significant.

Benzene: Long-term exposure to high enough levels has adverse effects on the blood and bone marrow. Long term exposure to benzene in the air can cause luekemia, which is a concern if benzene could move from the soil or groundwater into a home.

Toluene: Exposure to high levels can effect the nervous system and kidneys. Exposure to high levels in the air can cause light-headness and dizzyness.

Ethylbenzene: Exposure to high levels in the air can cause eye and throat irritation, light-headedness and dizzyness. These is a potential for damage to the kidneys from exposure to high levels.

Source: Stuart C. Schmitz, Environmental Toxicologist, Iowa Department of Public Health

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Iowa’s 6,200 leaking underground storage tanks

There are about 6,200 leaking underground storage tanks in the state — and more than 1,500 are considered ongoing contamination risks. Some of the leaking tanks have been problems for more than 15 years. Almost 820 are labeled high-risk.

State officials say they are trying to devise new rules so that the most hazardous sites, which often take years to clean up because of bureaucratic red tape and legal wrangling, can be addressed faster.
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See where they are: Click here to search a map and database to see how many of the state’s 6,200 leaking underground tanks are near you.

The state’s backlog is down about 30 percent from five years ago, according to statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, but about 20 leaking tanks deemed in need of action are on school property.

“We are taking enforcement action against those who don’t fix (leaks),” said Elaine Douskey, who supervises the underground storage tank program with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. “We are staying after them.” Left undetected, leaking tanks can cause big problems, as residents in Climbing Hill, an unincorporated town of less than 150 people in Woodbury County in northwest Iowa, discovered.

They learned almost 18 years ago that two underground tanks, including one that belonged to a school, contaminated five residential drinking water wells and one public supply well that belonged to a restaurant. State officials provided bottled water for almost nine years and then switched the town to filtration systems before homeowners received new wells around 2004, said Rochelle Cardinale, an environmental coordinator with the DNR.

Routine tests show the new wells are safe, but some residents still question whether lingering contamination will someday taint that water supply, too.

“I’m worried about where that contamination might go,” said Gary Little, who works and lives with his family in the Barn, a local cafe.

Longtime residents are also concerned about developing cancer, he said. “They don’t know how long they’ve been drinking that stuff.”

People who ingest or breathe high concentrations of chemicals released from a tank could wind up with leukemia, kidney damage, nervous system disorders and other ailments, according to state public health officials.

A report by the Iowa Department of Public Health estimates Climbing Hill residents were exposed to chemicals, including benzene, for a year or two before the leak was detected. That wasn’t long enough to put them at greater risk for getting cancer, the report states.

The Climbing Hill leaks are still labeled high-risk; there is still benzene in the soil. In high enough concentrations, benzene can cause leukemia.

The site might be downgraded because the wells have been removed, Cardinale said. The department isn’t sure how much longer it will have to monitor the area, she said.

The high-risk designation means a leak could expose people to dangerous chemicals. It doesn’t mean contamination has already occurred.

Challenges exist in finding, tracking tanks that leak

DNR officials know how many leaks there are, but say they don’t keep track of how many times leaking tanks have tainted drinking water, polluted lakes or streams, or seeped into basements in Iowa.

Douskey said the agency’s data on the leaks have that detail, but the only way to tally up that data is to review each file manually.

However, the agency does respond quickly to reports of suspected contamination – either in the water or the air, which sometimes is the first clue there is a leak nearby, Douskey said.

One example is from February 2006, when employees at a day care in Shelby said tap water smelled like gasoline. The likely culprit was a plastic water line running past a gas station. The day care moved and the lines were replaced.

But without evidence of contamination, it’s not readily apparent to residents whether a leaking underground storage tank near them poses a hazard because each site is different, Douskey said. Soil composition, the size of the tank, the depth of nearby wells, the age and extent of the leak, and the groundwater table all factor into where pollutants are likely to spread and whether they present a risk to the public.

“If I lived right next door to a gas station, I would be curious whether they have a plume under that site,” Douskey said, adding that anyone can view the agency’s records on leaking tanks for more information.

If a leak occurs in clay soil, it could stay on the site forever and never be a problem, but a leak in sandy soil travels farther, she said. But even if it spreads, that doesn’t mean it’s a risk, she added.

Leaking gasoline tanks can also present the risk of fire and explosion because vapors travel.

When a leak is detected, state officials inform residents and businesses within 100 feet of the affected area, and they take soil, water and air samples if they suspect any contamination, Cardinale said.

Cardinale said it’s unusual for a leak to travel much beyond 400 feet, or about a city block. The leak could spread farther if it’s near a municipal well that pumps lots of water and can pull contaminants in.

Tracing contamination, cleanup can take years

It took 14 years for officials to figure out how to handle the Climbing Hill contamination. That case was extreme, but cases sometimes linger several years while agencies and owners decide what to do, Cardinale said.

The agency and the industry admit it often takes far too long to take action, and both sides are trying to implement new methods to speed up detection and cleanup. Aided by new federal laws, state regulators also have more tools to guarantee that tank owners comply.

Some of the changes include:

• Devising a better way to measure the actual potential spread of contamination, which could downgrade some sites where the current risk might be overstated, although industry officials and the DNR are currently at odds over how to do this.

• Using inspectors from third-party companies to check all tanks every two years. State inspectors had such a backlog that some sites went five years without an inspection.

• Shutting down gas stations or fueling facilities that don’t comply by preventing fuel trucks from filling the stations’ tanks, in accordance with a federal law that went into effect last year.

• Requiring all new tanks to have enhanced safety measures, leak detection devices and an extra outer shell. Traditional steel tanks, prone to corrosion, have been replaced with specially coated Fiberglas tanks resistant to gasoline, diesel and ethanol.

• Bringing all parties together at once, especially for high-risk sites that need more attention.

“If we know it’s high-risk, we decided it’d be best to get everybody at the table at the same time,” Douskey said. “That seems to have cut the time down significantly.”

Jeff Hove, regulatory affairs manager of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores of Iowa, agreed. “Especially if it’s a newer release, you’re going to see it move forward immediately,” he said.

But about three-fourths of the remaining cleanup work in Iowa must be funded by taxpayers.

Evaluating a leak requires rounds of monitoring and testing to figure out how far contamination has spread. It’s a problem if pollutants reach private drinking water wells, city water supplies, sewer lines, lakes or streams, or seep into basements as a chemical vapor.

If the current property owners didn’t install the tank — or knew nothing about it when they bought the land — finding out who is responsible adds another hurdle.

Debating whether to excavate the soil, remove the tank, extract vapors or take other action turns into back-and-forth between government agencies and site owners, Hove said.

“It can be a really long process,” Hove said. “Sometimes the regulator will say, ‘Well, industry’s dragging their feet.’ And industry says, ‘We did our report and sent it in 12 months ago and it hasn’t been reviewed by DNR yet.’ ”

Eastern Iowa school district spends thousands on site

In the meantime, some site owners simply watch and wait. Near an elementary school in Lowden, a town of about 800 residents some 40 miles northwest of Davenport, inspectors test six groundwater samples each year.

Leaks from an old fuel oil tank used to heat the school’s boiler are in proximity to a city drinking water well. That means the site has been labeled high-risk, even though the tank was removed in 2004 and the tests show contaminant levels falling within allowable ranges, said Mary Jo Hainstock, superintendent of the North Cedar Community School District.

The district spent about $14,200 in 2004 to have the tank removed and has been paying $1,300 to a private company each year since for the tests.

“It’s thousands of dollars,” she said. “But when you want to do things right, it’s really not an option not to do it.”

The district hopes the state will reclassify the site soon, although Hainstock is prepared to wait up to a year for her district’s application to be reviewed.

SOURCE: Leaking Underground Storage Tanks › Iowa pollution perils lurk among buried fuel tanks