Max Ortiz / The Detroit News John Laidlaw, of Myers Construction, prepares a fuel tank in Southfield for removal. Michigan ranks as the seventh-worst state for documented leaks. The state’s total spills number more than those discovered in New England’s six states combined.

Oozing tanks taint water

Schools, hospitals among violators

By Jeremy Pearce / The Detroit News

    LANSING — More than 9,000 deteriorating underground storage tanks remain buried in Michigan, leaking gasoline, oils, solvents and other pollutants two years after a federal deadline for their removal.

    A Detroit News review of state and federal records shows 2,283 of those tanks are in Metro Detroit alone. State environmental officials confirm the faulty tanks leach chemicals into the region’s groundwater, lakes and rivers, as well as the drinking water that many residents draw from wells.

    U.S. Environmental Protection Agency records rank Michigan as the seventh-worst state for documented tank leaks. Michigan’s total spills number more than those discovered in New England’s six states combined.

    Depletion of state clean-up funds, resistance from tank owners and fledgling attempts to criminally prosecute offenders contribute to the lingering nature of the problem.

    Michigan prosecutions of tank owners have resulted in only a handful of convictions, although state officials vow a remedy this year.

    Meantime, residents living in outlying parts of Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties that haven’t extended public water systems in pace with development, register doubts about the safety of their water supply.

    “Who are we going to call? And who’s going to buy your house when you can’t drink the water?” asked Terry Lawrence, a New Hudson resident whose home well is being monitored by Oakland County health officials for fuel contamination.

    Test results to detect benzene, toluene and other proven carcinogens in Lawrence’s water have so far come up negative. Health officials are tracking leaks from underground tanks owned by a company bordering his suburban subdivision.

    Scores of other illegal and dangerously deficient tanks are under existing or former gas stations, but Michigan Department of Environmental Quality records also reveal hundreds of surprises.

    Churches, hospitals, schools, police departments, golf courses, cemeteries, marinas, universities, fire stations, car washes, dry cleaners and even municipal offices are listed as offenders in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties.

    “I’m surprised by the number of tanks — we were not aware of this,” said City Councilman Dave Herrington of Mt. Clemens, where the state lists leaking tanks at Mt. Clemens General Hospital and the Elks Club, among 20 other offenders.

    In neighboring Oakland County, where 300,000 residents lack access to public water systems, health officials say only a fraction of the county’s 75,000 wells are tested for contamination. Officials take an annual total of about 1,000 water samples from 40 sites.

    “There is no routine, ongoing testing unless we suspect some specific contamination,” said Bob Long of Oakland County’s Health Division.

    Oakland has more than 660 leaking tanks at sites that include William Beaumont Hospital, Bloomfield Hills Country Club, Oakland University, Providence Hospital, Oak Hill Cemetery in Pontiac and the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak.

    Wayne County’s 1,129 sites include Northwest Airlines facilities, Hutzel Hospital, Stevenson High School, the Salvation Army, Detroit Golf Club, Holy Cross Hospital, Livonia’s police department and six Detroit firehouses, according to state records.

    Since Wayne County draws nearly all of its water from intakes under the Detroit River, pollution of drinking supplies by underground tanks is not an immediate concern, say state Department of Environmental Quality officials, although environmental groups argue otherwise.

    “It’s appalling. You can’t have 1,200 leaking tanks and dismiss that as not a problem,” said Allison Horton, director of the Sierra Club’s Michigan Chapter, based in East Lansing.

    “We have enough contamination already. This is another example of the DEQ’s failure to protect the public and its health.”

Part 2 -- Looming enforcement