Stimulus Program Funds
Underground Petroleum Spills
By summer 2010, the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust/Brownfields Section of the Montana DEQ’s Remediation Division had spent 41 percent of its grant money for underground petroleum spills under the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA. Remediation work on the Trailside Truck Stop site in Sidney was completed in spring 2010. Work is still underway at sites in Ronan, Columbus and Roundup.
The DEQ administers the funds through a cooperative agreement with the EPA. By the end of March 2010, Montana was the leading state in EPA’s Region 8 area to meet grant requirements. The DEQ is continuing to research other potential petroleum contaminant sites in towns throughout Montana for possible expenditure of additional ARRA funding if available in the future.
In 2009, Montana received $1.3 million to clean up five leaking underground tank sites, the first of six states in the region to be awarded funds from the EPA “This money lets us clean up polluted land and water in some of Montana’s smaller communities and it reinforces local economies with jobs,” said Governor Brian Schweitzer. “When these toxic sites are cleaned up, we can move forward with development to reuse the area. So we’re putting people to work, cleaning up dangerous pollution and investing in the future.”
Petroleum released underground can contaminate groundwater, which is the primary source of drinking water for most Montanans. According to the Montana Natural Resource Information System, groundwater provides 94 percent of Montana's rural domestic water supply and 39 percent of the public water supply.
“We are honored to be the first western state in our region to receive this much needed funding to tackle some of those sites that pollute groundwater and threaten public health,” said DEQ Director Richard Opper. “Preventing tank leaks is the best medicine to insure safe drinking water, and through our work, the DEQ is reducing the number of spills that occur. But we must address the serious contamination that exists and this money helps.”
There are more than 1,500 active petroleum storage tank releases in Montana. The DEQ looks at high priority, shovel-ready sites with bankrupted or recalcitrant owners to decide which ones will get ARRA funding.
“There are stipulations to the funding. We can only spend it to address contamination from federally-defined underground storage tanks where an owner or operator is unidentified, unable, or unwilling to perform the necessary work themselves,” says Sandi Olsen, DEQ Remediation Division Administrator. “The DEQ is also required to recover expended funds from viable owners and operators responsible for the underground storage tanks following expenditure.”
Other states that received ARRA funds in EPA Region 8 include Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.
