The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services will receive aid under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to assess and clean up underground storage tank petroleum leaks.
Leaking underground storage tanks present a tremendous environmental hazard, especially when petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the surrounding soil and contaminate the groundwater. Groundwater is a vital source of drinking water. Nearly one-third of all Americans rely on this source for their drinking water.
EPA Administrator, Lisa P. Jackson said, “We’re providing immediate growth opportunities for communities across the nation, as well as long-term protection from dangerous pollution in the land and water. EPA is putting people to work by serving our core mission of protecting human health and the environment.”
The project is being funded in part of the $197 million allocated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to address shovel-ready sites nationwide contaminated by petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks. The money will be used for overseeing assessment and cleanup of leaks from underground storage tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling or unable to finance, or the cleanup is an emergency response.
