LUST 21 articles

Hoping to avert a nationwide shutdown of federal transportation projects, the House Ways and Means Committee has proposed a plan that would temporarily replenish the nearly dried-up Highway Trust Fund and bankroll infrastructure projects through May 15, 2015. The bipartisan plan would rely on unusual methods to replenish federal transportation funds, including taking money from the Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) fund used to clean up environmentally contaminated sites. The 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax used to fund federal transportation projects has not kept pace with the nation’s infrastructure needs for various reasons. The tax has not been raised in more than ... Read More

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. Federal environmental records suggest the UST cleanup money will be well spent. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Pennsylvania has 3,368 leaking underground storage tank cleanups in its backlog to be completed. Pennsylvania spends $1.5 million per year on ... Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement it reached with Handee Marts, Inc., doing business as 7-Eleven, over alleged violations of federal underground storage tank regulations. The two stores held in violation of EPA standards are located in Pittsburgh and Cranberry, Pennsylvania. The parent company, Handee Marts, is based in Gibsonia, Penn. 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 ... Read More

The owners of a gas station in Waldo, Ohio, have agreed to pay a civil penalty of $161,550 for a petroleum leak that took place more than 20 years ago. According to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and the Ohio Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations, the Waldo Duchess gas station will also “conduct the necessary corrective actions and cleanup” to resolve the complaint. According to the Attorney General, the gas station owners removed seven underground storage tanks from the property in December 1988. The state conducted an inspection at the time and found that petroleum had ... Read More

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. The County agreed to pay penalties of $4,600 for failing to maintain release detection records on three tanks between March and December 2007. The EPA also found that the county never performed automatic leak ... Read More

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. At first the Trauds assumed the water’s bad odor and taste came from being unused, so they gave it the benefit of the doubt ... Read More

California’s State Water Resources Control Board oversees the implementation of some of the country’s strictest environmental regulations, including those that govern the inspection, monitoring, removal, and cleanup of underground storage tanks. The only problem is that the cash-strapped state doesn’t have enough money in its Barry Keene Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund to cover all the UST work in progress. According to the North Bay Business Journal, many businesses in the San Francisco Bay area with leaking USTs in their charge are not being reimbursed for the mandatory removal and cleanup of the toxic leaking tanks. UST removal and cleanup ... Read More

A Kentucky oil company faces a criminal investigation and possible $25,000-per-day fines for multiple environmental violations that have marred the local community, according to a report by Convenience Store News Online. Childers Oil Co., a petroleum vendor and operator of 45 convenience stores, is responsible for a serious oil sludge leak in November of last year and a diesel fuel leak February. According to government records, Childers Oil, which is based in the eastern Kentucky city of Whitesburg, has also been cited for at least 10 other violations since 1995. The November incident occurred when oil waste from a Childers ... Read More

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 ... Read More

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. None of the plaintiffs have appeared in court since the case opened in April of 1999. Montgomery County judge Maurino Rossanese Jr. bifurcated their civil lawsuit, ... Read More