Groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin

UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS
IN THE GREAT LAKES BASIN
Great Lakes groundwater quality is being threatened
as significant numbers of USTs are located within
the Great Lakes Basin. More than 612,000 USTs are
known in the eight Great Lake States of which over
148,000 have been identified as having confirmed
releases (Table 1) (U.S. EPA, 2007c). As of September
2007, 31,628 sites are backlogged awaiting remediation,
representing 29% of the U.S. total (U.S. EPA, 2007c).
Seven of the eight Great Lakes states each have over
2,500 backlogs and are among the top 15 states with the
largest backlog problems (Figure 4) (U.S. EPA, 2006).
In Detroit, Michigan, alone there are 805 LUST sites.
This problem was identified by the mayor who issued
a moratorium against building new gas stations in an
attempt to redevelop existing closed and abandoned
sites (Wisely, 2007). BP Products North America
Incorporated was fined $869,150 in 2007 for LUSTs at
eight of its former stations in Michigan, some of which
have contaminated groundwater. One of the eight
sites located in Roseville, Michigan, was discovered
in 1966; however, in 2007 clean-up still had not been
completed (Lam, 2007). In 2007 more than 200 former
BP gas stations were being monitored by the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality for releases
from USTs. A 2006 study indicates that BP has a 60%
noncompliance rate (Lam, 2007).
With more LUSTs being found annually in every
jurisdiction, ranging from 109 in Wisconsin to 603
in New York through fiscal year 2007 (U.S. EPA,
2007c), the issue of reducing LUST backlogs is of key
importance. Yet, the overall cleanup pace has decreased
significantly, averaging 23,235 per year from 1997-2001
to only 13,862 in 2007 (Figure 5) (U.S. EPA, 1997-2007).
In Michigan cleanup has decreased from 1,547
site closings in 1997 to only 277 in 2006, less
than the number of new LUST sites discovered
(Wisely, 2007). Furthermore, while the national
cleanup average is 77%, Michigan is well below
this, having cleaned up only 57% of its known
releases (U.S. EPA, 2007c). Although accurate
data regarding the number of LUST sites
situated within the Great Lakes Basin region
of each jurisdiction is unavailable, the majority
of LUSTs in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and
Ontario are likely within the Great Lakes Basin
based on population numbers.
In Canada there is a lack of comparable data
on the number of USTs and potential LUST
sites. Although an accurate number of USTs
in Canada is currently unknown or unavailable,
estimates place the number in service at
around 200,000 (Alsip, 1993; Rush and Metzger,
Sites Cleaned
28,000
26,000
24,000
22,000
20,000
18,000
16,000
14,000
12,000
Figure 5.
Figure 4.
Backlogged clean-ups in U.S.
1991; WCELRF, 1991). In 1994, Environment Canada
estimated there are approximately 40,000 LUST sites
across Canada (Lalonde, 1995). As of 2006 the number
of storage tanks on federal land, both above and below
ground, was recorded to be 8,449. Of these more than
3,000 are believed to be leaking (Canada Gazette,
2007). Recent estimates indicate that approximately
34% of these tanks are USTs (CESD, 2002).
There is also a lack of data regarding USTs located
within Ontario. A recent count of gasoline stations in
Ontario indicated more than 3,800 (Misener, 2007),
each having 3 to 4 USTs (Howard and Livingston, 1997;
U.S. EPA, 1986). Estimates of USTs in Ontario vary,
suggesting more than 10,000 are located on federally
Number of LUST Sites Cleaned Per Year (1997-2007)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Year
Decrease in U.S. LUST site clean-ups
Note: There is a slight discrepancy between reported
and calculated figures Source: U.S. EPA, 1997-2007
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