According to the GAO, $12 Billion to Cleanup Leaking Fuel Tanks

Date: February 26, 2007

Source: News Room

According to the GAO, it will cost $12 billion to clean up the contamination caused by tens of thousands of leaking underground gasoline storage tanks. The figure vastly eclipses the $72 million that Congress and the Bush Administration provide each year. The EPA, which oversees the cleanups, has already spent $10 billion over the last 20 years but 117,000 faulty tanks still await remediation. $12 billion would cover only the 54,000 tanks that are abandoned and for which no one can be held accountable. Another 63,000 would be paid for by site owners and insurance companies. It is a moving target. Forty-three states expect to find 16,700 new leaky tanks in the next five years. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and who released the GAO report, called the situation an "inexplicable failure to use available resources to speed the cleanup of pollution that is likely to spread."

For more information, visit:
House Energy and Commerce Committee: energycommerce.house.gov.
US EPA: www.epa.gov/oust.

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