February 26, 2007

The Department of Environmental Quality today red-tagged three underground gasoline storage tanks located at the Peterson's Citgo station in Cadillac for failing to properly investigate and remediate soil and groundwater contamination caused by leaking tanks that were discovered in 1993.

The red tags prohibit the delivery of gasoline into those tanks and will remain in place until the company corrects all deficiencies outlined by the DEQ or enters into a legally enforceable agreement with the DEQ to do so.

The company failed to submit a statutorily-complete Final Assessment Report that completely defines the extent of groundwater contamination and adequately evaluates the potential threat the contamination poses to the municipal water supply serving the city of Cadillac. Groundwater contamination extends more than 3,000 feet from the site and poses a potential threat to the drinking water supply for city residents.

Additionally, the company has relied on a corrective action plan that did not incorporate active removal of contaminants from groundwater and instead inappropriately relied on dilution and degradation of contamination through natural processes even though the site is located within the wellhead protection zone for the city of Cadillac. The CAP was based on an inadequate understanding of the nature and extent of contamination and was instituted utilizing an inadequate groundwater monitoring network.

The company was notified by the DEQ on July 14, 2006 that if a complete final assessment report was not submitted by November 1, 2006 that fully defined the extent of contamination and proposed a corrective action plan capable of protecting human health and environmental resources, the station would be red tagged for violation of the state's Leaking Underground Storage Tank law. The company submitted a final assessment report to the DEQ on November 1, 2006, but upon a recent audit was found to be deficient and prompted the placement of red tags on the station's fuel storage tanks.

With over half of Michigan's population relying on groundwater for their drinking water source, contamination from leaking underground storage tank sites remains a significant problem for the state. Michigan ranks third in the nation, behind Florida and California, for the highest number of releases from leaking underground storage tanks yet to be cleaned up with more than 9,000 currently known. Nearly half of these releases are associated with abandoned properties, and costs to clean up the backlog are estimated at $3 billion.

Editor's note: DEQ news releases are available on the department's Internet home page at www.michigan.gov/deq.

"Protecting Michigan's Environment, Ensuring Michigan's Future"

Revised February 26, 2007 by Pat Watson