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U.S. EPA leads efforts to protect Guam water supplies from leaking underground tanks / Inspections educate tank operators, protect water supplies

Release Date: 11/17/2008
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, higuchi.dean@epa.gov

(11/17/08) HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working with Guam Environmental Protection Agency staff, inspected 19 petroleum underground storage tank facilities and issued citations at two facilities for underground storage tank violations.

The EPA and GEPA issued citations to the US Post Office Main Facility for a $500 penalty and Triple J Motors for $600. The Post Office had release detection violations, and Triple J Motors did not properly notify the agency of the existence of its underground storage tank. The EPA will continue to work with the Guam EPA to increase awareness and compliance at petroleum underground storage tank facilities on Guam.

“The EPA is serious about enforcing underground tank regulations,” said Jeff Scott, the EPA's Waste Management Division director for the Pacific Southwest region. “Proper operation, maintenance and leak prevention is critical because unseen leaks caused by corrosion, overfills or other spills can pollute precious ground water supplies—a limited resource in Guam.”

Compliance with leak prevention and leak detection requirements helps ensure petroleum releases from underground storage tanks occur less frequently and that facilities are properly alerted when releases do occur. To prevent releases, federal law required all regulated underground storage tanks to have spill and overfill equipment and corrosion protection in place by Dec. 22, 1998. Releases that are detected quickly can be cleaned up at far less expense than releases that go undetected for long periods of time.

More information visit: https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/ust/ustinspect.html#island and https://www.epa.gov/region09/waste/ust/index.html, or https://www.epa.gov/OUST/

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