Source: http://www.chron.com, November 25, 2011
By: Mike Morris, Houston Chronicle
Harris County’s pollution control staff were eager last year to move into a new office the county was building in Pasadena. The opening was delayed for more than a month, however, after leaking underground storage tanks were found on the site and had to be cleaned up.
“I think it was just par for the course that the pollution control people would be on a piece of land that had to be (cleaned up),” said a laughing Latrice Babin, the department’s special projects manager.
County officials, tired of such cleanups and the delays that accompany them, are targeting the owners of leaking tanks, saying the companies – not taxpayers – should pay for the environmental repairs.
There are nearly 55,000 underground storage tanks in Texas and more than 7,400 in Harris County. Roughly half have been identified as leaking, though the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality reports most have been cleaned up.
Many of the tanks hold gasoline or diesel; some hold other hazardous liquids, such as dry cleaning fluid. The average cleancost up for a leaking tank is $85,902, the TCEQ said.
Assistant County Attorney Rock Owens said the state long has required companies to register their tanks and monitor leaks, but has not taken an aggressive approach to enforcement. When the county encounters contamination during projects, he said, the costs are absorbed by taxpayers.
“They never went in and said, ‘You polluted the water, you polluted the ground, you’re responsible for that,’ ” Owens said. “We took a look and said, ‘Wait, these people are getting a free ride.’ ”
Since 1997, the TCEQ has issued more than 600 enforcement orders related to leaking tanks in Harris County, assessing $5.1 million in penalties, according to agency spokesman Terry Clawson.
The city of Houston also has noted the issues surrounding underground storage tanks. Mayor Annise Parker last fall announced plans to close most city fueling stations, aiming to reduce Houston’s liability for leaks.
‘Very large undertaking’
As of last month, the city had removed 71 tanks from 28 fueling sites, and cleaned up any contamination at an estimated cost of $500,000, mayoral spokeswoman Janice Evans said.
The county already has filed suit against the owner of a leaking dry cleaning tank off San Felipe, and is preparing a suit against AT&T, one of whose fuel tanks delayed a project on Gasmer and cost $80,000 to clean up, Owens said.
AT&T did not respond to a request for comment.
“The precedent for environmental enforcement is there. We’ve been doing those kinds of cases for a long time. This is just a slightly different application,” Owens said. “It could be a very large undertaking.”
TCEQ reports all but 209 of the county’s 3,468 leaking tanks have been cleaned up, the vast majority by the companies themselves.
Houston environmental attorney Jim Blackburn said the state’s hands-off approach is reasonable, but he agreed with the county’s stance.
Leaks bring lawsuits
After federal laws began requiring the registration and monitoring of underground tanks in 1986, he said, many leaking ones were dug up, at great cost. In the 1990s, the state moved to a policy of “monitor and manage” rather than “pump and treat,” Blackburn said. Liquids, such as fuel, can be neutralized naturally over time, he noted, by bacteria in the soil.
However, when contaminants leech onto other properties or interfere with public projects, lawsuits are appropriate, he said.
“It’s a cost the public is incurring due to what some would argue are the lax cleanup policies associated with these leaking tanks,” Blackburn said. “Where there are certain honest claims that are being passed on to the public sector, I think it makes perfect sense for there to be legal action.”