GAO: Fuel Tank Cleanup Could Cost $12B - AP

GAO: Fuel Tank Cleanup Could Cost $12B
By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

February 22, 2007, 3:48 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- It will cost at least $12 billion to clean up contamination from tens
of thousands of gasoline storage tanks that are leaking underground, congressional
auditors say.

That is far more than the $72 million that Congress and the Bush administration have
provided each year, according to the report Thursday from the General Accountability
Office.

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The lag in cleanups isn't necessarily due to lack of money, according to the GAO.

Every time a motorist pays for a gallon of gas, a tenth of a penny goes into a trust
fund to remove the contamination. The fund now has about $2.6 billion and is expected
to reach $3 billion before the end of 2008. Congress created the trust fund in 1986
because of concerns about contamination from leaking tanks at gas stations, but
annually only a small fraction has been appropriated for cleanups. Most has sat in the
Treasury to help counter federal budget deficits.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee and
who released the GAO report on Thursday, called the situation an "inexplicable failure
to use available resources to speed the cleanup of pollution that is likely to spread."

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