On 14-Aug-2004, Bill wrote:

Well now, no disrespect for your 400-gallon tank but she ain't the
Exxon Valdez! Just how much environmental contamination do you think
she is capable of producing?

The problem isn't one tank, it's a collection of all the tanks out there
that folks have forgotten about or ignored. I don't know about where you
are, but around here, new underground tanks are no longer steel - only
plastic or composite are used.

I was consulting for a major oil company a while back. Based on an analysis
of their known tank inventory and their site count, I estimated that there
were over two thousand (!) tanks that were "lost" - no one knew exactly
where they were located or what condition they were in. Some might have been
replaced with composite and not documented, others removed etc. Some might
be sitting there untested and leaking. These aren't 400 gallon tanks, of
course, but 20,000 - 50,000 liter. It would be nice to believe that the
local users are testing them regularly and checking for leaks, but...

Collectively, the tanks in N.A. leak an Exxon Valdez a month, IIRC. Remember
that next time you drink ground water.

Mike