Florida today received some $11.2 million in stimulus money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assess and clean up underground storage tank petroleum leaks.
The greatest potential hazard from a leaking Underground Storage Tank (UST) is that the petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly one-third of all Americans, according to an EPA release.
One gallon of petroleum can contaminate one million gallons of water. One pin-prick sized hole in an UST can leak 400 gallons of fuel a year.
In Florida the potential threat from leaking underground storage tanks is much more real in that ground water provides about 50 percent of all water used, including more than 90 percent of all drinking water needs.
Although Florida was one of the first states to establish UST regulations in 1983, it had to stop work at some leaking UST sites in 2003 owing to inadequate funding.
According to the EPA records, as at end March 2009, the state had some 26,000 active underground storage tanks (leaking fuel) with over 14,000 cleanups in backlog to be completed. The agency records show that Florida has already cleaned up a little more than 11,000 leaking tanks.
Given the budgetary constraints that the state faces, funding, particularly grants are indeed welcome. This said, with the average cost of replacing a single underground storage tank estimated at $250,000, we seriously question the clean up effort in Florida, in light of the backlog and in the absence of significant additional funding.
Florida has the unenviable national distinction of being ranked number one in terms of the percentage of releases (56%) not yet cleaned up.
In view of the serious public health treat and the vitally important role that clean drinking water plays in Florida’s agricultural, commerical, industrial and mining sectors, the state must move more aggressively to identify creative means of funding to guard against UST contamination.
