Aboveground Storage Tanks

For almost a week in 2014 Charleston  West Virginia and the surrounding communities were without drinking water because of a chemical spill into Elk River.  By all accounts a former fuel storage tank leaked about 7,500 gallons of MCHM into the Elk River a mile and a half up river from the water intake for the drinking water supply for Charleston. The water company treatment and  filters could not remove the MCHM which is actually the acronym for 4-methylcyclohexane methanol a modestly water soluble octanol used in air freshener and for washing coal. The water company was forced to issue a do not use for drinking, cooking or bathing warning to their water customers.

The chemical storage facility was owned by a private company, Freedom Industries, Inc. The site of the leak was once a Pennzoil-Quaker State gasoline and diesel storage terminal that was sold in 2001. These old tanks (reportedly installed around 1938) were apparently put to new use storing chemicals. Though it was common in the past to have fuel storage tanks on rivers, it was not the safest of ideas. When Pennzoil-Quaker State closed the facility and sold it, the new owners though it was okay to store solvent in an old 35,000 gallon above ground riveted storage tank that clearly had inadequate secondary containment to prevent a spill into the river. This was all legal.

Back in January 1988 about 800,000 gallons of diesel fuel was released from an Ashland Oil company storage tank that ruptured 20 miles upriver from downtown Pittsburgh. The 40-year-old tank was within a containment dike that reportedly held 2.5 million gallons but failed to stop the overspill from running into the river. The oil spill shut down drinking water for days (including mine in Greentree). The problem then and now is that the secondary containment that was historically used for fuel storage was motivated to prevent fires, not prevent leakage into the river.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not regulate most aboveground fuel storage tanks (AST) and there are no national standards for secondary containment and spill prevention. In addition, tanks have no maximum life and there are tanks more than 75 years old that continue to be used. This is outrageous and  endangers our rivers and groundwater. Unless you have a permit to discharge to surface waters you are not required to have a spill prevention plan. All fuel and chemical storage tanks whether aboveground or underground should be required to have adequate secondary containment and spill prevention plans, be registered and hold spill insurance. There are two types of ASTs: vertical  and horizontal. Horizontal ASTs typically hold from a few hundred gallons up to 20,000 gallons, while the storage capacity of vertical ASTs ranges from several thousand gallons to over 10 million gallons. Nothing is fail safe, but there are no controls on these tanks and they pose a risk to our water supplies that needs to be addressed.

In response to the two incidents above West Virginia and Pennsylvania are two of the 10 states that have established comprehensive programs that impose registration, inspection, and design and siting requirements to prevent releases from aboveground chemical storage facilities. The other eight states are Massachusetts, New York, Delaware, New Jersey, Florida, Kansas, South Dakota, and Minnesota. There are no regulations for aboveground storage tanks in Virginia.

In a new report from the Center for Progressive Reform, they found that the number of unregulated aboveground chemical storage tanks in the Commonwealth are between 2,720 and 5,405.  In addition, their analysis of data from Virginia DEQ’s Pollution Response Program data found that between 2000 and 2020, there were more than 4,800 tank-related instances of spills, releases, improper storage, and illegal dumping, of which over 1,400 explicitly involved aboveground storage tanks. That amounts to an average of nearly 230 tank-related incidents in the Commonwealth each year. The seven most impacted cities and counties are home to roughly a third of Virginians.

According to the Center for Progressive Reform: “First, AST programs collect and track critical information about regulated tanks. Registering tank location, ownership, contents, and other information is a common feature of almost all programs. Second, programs impose measures to prevent spills. These provisions typically include design criteria, secondary containment measures, and inspection requirements. Compliance with these standards is often a prerequisite to obtaining an operating permit. Third, an AST program often requires spill planning and response measures, such as response plans and demonstrating financial capability to cover the costs of response to a chemical leak and its impacts. Finally, AST programs often function to inform the public, state regulators, drinking water utilities, emergency planners, and first responders.”

I whole heartily agree that now is the time for Virginia to develop a sensible plan for registering and monitoring aboveground storage tanks. I think a simple program might work for Virginia without the need for federal action. Virginia must:

• Register all aboveground tanks
• Limit their lifetime
• Require environmental pollution insurance
• Require secondary containment

If you wish to read the entire report from the Center for Progressive Reform it can be found at this link.