Wal-Mart Probed Over Florida Environmental Hazards
Retailer possibly violated Florida state tank laws
By Greg C. Bruno, Sun Staff Writer
(gainesville
sun) The florida department of environmental protection is investigating
more than a third of florida's wal-mart facilities for possible
violations of the state's petroleum storage tank laws, agency officials
said friday.
Since 1998, regulations have required most above-ground
fuel tanks used by gas stations, auto-repair facilities and other
service providers to be registered with the state at the time of
their installation. many wal-marts, including supercenters with
oil-and-lube operations, and retail stores with backup power generators,
have on-site fuel storage tanks.
Businesses with tanks on their property also must
prove they have the financial resources to pay for a cleanup if
a spill occurs.
But in as many as 75 wal-mart locations statewide,
dep officials said, the company appears to have failed to comply
with one or more of florida's tank laws.
The oversight means that for as many as five years,
the environmental agency was unaware of the company's on-site fuel
sources and unable to ensure they were operating properly.
"If the state doesn't know it's there, and there
is a leak from the system, and the leak enters florida's ground
or surface water, it could be an expensive cleanup and have potential
impacts to human health," said marshall mott-smith, administrator
of florida's storage tank regulation division.
Daphne Moore, a wal-mart spokeswoman, said the retailer
is working with the state to address the concerns.
"It is a situation that we are aware of,"
Moore said. "we hired an outside consultant to regulate all
the tanks and evaluate all the tanks as well."
Moore said that varying regulations between states
led to the company's failure to comply with florida laws.
"Once we became aware of the need to register
these tanks we did so," she said.
Roughly 92 percent of the state's drinking water is
supplied by groundwater. to protect this valuable yet vulnerable
resource, florida has adopted some of the toughest petroleum contamination
prevention and cleanup laws in the country. In 1983, florida become
one of the first states nationwide to regulate above- and below-ground
storage tank systems.
Today, all of the state's regulated tanks are required
to provide secondary confinement - in essence a tank within a tank
- to ensure against accidental leakage.
To enforce state laws, dep contracts inspection duties
to private businesses or governmental agencies in all 67 counties.
in most cases, inspectors are pulled from the ranks of local environmental
offices. in alachua county, staff with the environmental protection
department conduct the reviews.
The annual regulatory compliance checks mandated
by the state are impossible to perform when tank owners fail to
register them, dep officials say. with wal-mart, because the company
never informed the environmental agency when the tanks were installed,
state inspectors were unaware of their existence, mott-smith said.
On friday, officials with the storage tank regulation
division would not release the locations of the stores under investigation,
citing legal issues. but Mott-Smith said stores under review included
supercenters - which often have tire and lube express services -
as well as smaller retail stores.
wal-mart stores that sell food and require refrigeration
typically have above-ground fuel tanks inside their stores to power
backup generators, he said.
Tim Ramsey, alachua county's tank program coordinator,
said gainesville's two wal-mart stores had not been included in
the state review.
Mott-Smith also said that none of the stores being
investigated had shown evidence of past or present leaks. however,
failure to comply with florida's financial responsibility requirements
could bring fines of as much as $5,000 per violation, he said.
A meeting is scheduled with the state's tanks program
supervisors this week to discuss how to proceed.
this article was published with the consent of the
gainesville sun.
reprinted from
[AxcessNews.com]
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