=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #229
—April 17, 1991—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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LEAKING UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS.
The U.S. uses about 16 million barrels of oil and oil byproducts,
such as gasoline, each day (or 245 billion gallons per year).
Much of this material is stored in tanks at some time during
transport from source to point of use. Many of the storage tanks
are underground. Many are leaking.
There are some six million tanks in the U.S. for storing
petroleum, petroleum by-products, and petroleum-related
chemicals, many of which are toxic and carcinogenic. Of these,
two million are large commercial tanks used by gasoline stations,
airports, and refineries; the remainder are small tanks, such as
home heating fuel tanks. No one knows the exact number, but U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that, of the
nation’s two million commercial tanks, some 300,000 to 500,000
are leaking. That is, 15% to 25% of the nation’s large tanks are
leaking, EPA believes.
Some tanks have been leaking for a long time and have spilled
large puddles of oil underground. A puddle beneath a Mobil Oil
tank in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, NY, contains 17
million gallons of oil. (See RHWN #159.) The Tosco Corporation
owns a tank near San Francisco Bay with a 28 million-gallon
puddle of oil beneath it. The largest known oil spill beneath a
tank is at Chevron Corporation’s El Segundo, CA, facility–a
puddle comprising 200 million gallons of oil.
To get these oil spills into perspective, it helps to know that
the Exxon Valdez spill released 11 million gallons, so the Mobil
puddle in Brooklyn is 50% larger than the Valdez spill. The Tosco
Corp’s spill contains more than 2.5 times as much oil as the
Valdez spill, and Chevron’s El Segundo spill is 18 times larger
than the Valdez spill. It is also worth noting that this Chevron
spill is more than 3 times as large as the 64 million gallon
release in the Persian Gulf in February, 1991, which caused
President Bush to call Saddam Hussein an “eco terrorist.”
(This past weekend, Tom Betteg, former executive producer of the
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, said at a conference that CBS
had evidence that allied bombing, not an intentional release by
Iraqi forces, was responsible for the 64-million gallon release
in the Persian Gulf; however, Mr. Betteg said CBS has been unable
to find independent data with which to corroborate or refute this
information, so CBS was unable to air the story. “We may never
learn the truth about this,” Mr. Betteg said.)
Underground tanks (or large above-ground tanks partly buried in
the ground) have an expected lifetime of 20 to 40 years. “After
that they don’t have anywhere to go but to corrode,” says Helga
Butler, chief of planning and communications for the EPA’s Office
of Underground Storage Tanks. [NY TIMES July 29, 1990, pg. E4.]
(Just as all landfills must eventually leak, all storage tanks
must eventually leak. The second law of thermodynamics–a
fundamental law of physics–guarantees that all physical
structures spontaneously become more disordered as time passes.
“Disorder” in a tank or a landfill eventually spells leakage.
Humans, of course, by applying energy to a situation, can
temporarily reverse the disorder, for example, by welding a patch
over a hole in a tank; nevertheless, left alone, any tank will
slowly degrade and then leak.)
Last year EPA issued new regulations requiring underground tanks
to be made of non-corrosive material (such as fiber glass, which
is likely to degrade more slowly than some metals). New tanks
must also be equipped with leak detector systems. (Such systems
will tell you that the horse has left the barn, so it’s time to
shut the door.) Finally, each owner of a commercial underground
tank must carry at least $1 million in liability insurance–a
requirement that has driven many gasoline stations out of
business.
Even with the new regulations, EPA predicts that 62,000 private
water wells and 4,700 public water wells have been or will be
contaminated by underground leaks.
Cleanup of underground contamination is very expensive and is not
satisfactory. Water contaminated with petroleum and its
byproducts cannot be cleaned up to drinking water standards, EPA
says. EPA estimates that cleanup from petroleum spilled
underground could cost upwards of $32 billion, but the agency
admits that even with expenditures of this size, cleanup will
only be partially successful. In proposing underground storage
tank regulations in 1987, EPA admitted cleanup doesn’t really
work: “EPA has found no corrective action technology capable of
bringing water quality back to national [drinking water]
standards….” [FEDERAL REGISTER, April 17, 1987, pg. 12674.]
In East Setauket, Long Island, a small hole in an underground
pipe owned by Northville Industries has allowed over a million
gallons of gasoline to spill into the groundwater over the years.
The gasoline is floating on Long Island’s sole source of drinking
water; the underground puddle of gasoline today covers 30 acres
and, in some places, is over seven feet deep. Since 1987,
Northville has spent $10 million on cleanup and is expected to
spend millions more.
States try to hold the polluter liable, but the federal
government has imposed a 0.1 cent per gallon tax on gasoline to
create a $500 million fund to pay for cleanups where the
responsible party has disappeared or has gone bankrupt.
States with the worst problem are those where groundwater lies
close to the surface and where groundwater provides drinking
water for a large proportion of the populace. Florida seems to be
hardest hit; there groundwater is often within a foot of the
surface and 90% of the population drinks groundwater. Florida’s
worst problem yet discovered: During the past five years, 340,000
gallons of oil have been pumped from beneath the tarmac at Miami
airport.
Get: Lois Epstein, Citizen Action: AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION [A
CITIZENS’ SERIES ON LEAKING UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS, PART 2]
(Washington, DC: Environmental Defense Fund [EDF, 1616 P St., NW,
Suite 150, Washington, DC 20036; phone (202) 387-3500], December,
1990. $2.50. This good pamphlet shows how EPA has really failed
to adequately address the problem of underground tanks. It
contains several workable suggestions for getting citizens
involved in solving the underground tank problem. You may also
want to get Ms. Epstein’s earlier booklet that describes the only
technical fix that might prevent underground storage tanks from
leaking directly into soil and water–secondary containment
(basically, a bathtub beneath the tank). Get: SECONDARY
CONTAINMENT: A SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE [A CITIZENS’ SERIES ON
LEAKING UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS, PART 1]. $2.50 from EDF. EPA
did not require this technology in its new storage tank
regulations–it required, instead, leak detection systems that
signal after a problem has occurred.
For a good introduction to issues of groundwater contamination
and various federal laws that may help you take action to deal
with groundwater contamination, also get: Eric P. Jorgensen,
editor, THE POISONED WELL; STRATEGIES FOR GROUNDWATER PROTECTION
(Washington, DC: Island Press [1718 Connecticut Ave., NW,
Washington, DC 20036; phone (202) 232-7933], 1989). $19.95
paperback.
However, note that THE POISONED WELL does not take a truly modern
approach to the problem because it does not discuss zero
discharge systems, clean production, the banning of persistent,
bioaccumulative toxics, and other needed pollution prevention
measures.
Also consider getting: UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANK CORRECTIVE ACTION
TECHNOLOGIES [EPA/625/6-87/015] (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1987). Free from: U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (U.S. EPA) Office of Research and Development,
Publications Office, 26 West MLK Drive, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268;
phone (513) 569-7562; ask for EPA Technology Transfer Publication
625/6-87/015. While you’re at it, request from the same office a
free copy of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, HANDBOOK
GROUND WATER (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1987); request EPA Technology Transfer Publication 625/6-87/016.
This is the government’s best introduction to groundwater.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: ust; underground storage tanks; oil; gasoline;
leaks; petroleum; mobil oil; brooklyn, ny; tosco corp; san
francisco; exxon valdez; chevron; el segundo; oil spills; tom
betteg; cbs; persian gulf; eco-terrorism; helga butler; epa;
liners; groundwater; water pollution; remedial actions; li; east
setauket; liability; drinking water; fl; miami;