Livingston County (Click on map for full-size image.) Macomb County (Click on map for full-size image.) Oakland County (Click on map for full-size image.) Wayne County (Click on map for full-size image.)

Leaking underground storage tanks

Old-fashioned underground steel storage tanks, which are prone to corrosion and leakage, should have been removed years ago, under a federal mandate. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality lists the sites on this map as “open” — meaning they haven't been removed and any leakage cleaned up. DEQ, on whose list this map is based, says its data was last updated Dec. 26, 2000. Most of the tanks contain petroleum products, such as gasoline.

How these maps were drawn

The News used geographic information systems software to plot the approximate locations of leaking underground storage tanks in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties listed in the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's statewide database.

Not all sites listed by the state could be mapped because some addresses were inaccurate or incomplete. The greatest percentage of unmappable addresses were in Livingston County. Many unplotted tanks are on major streets, such as Van Dyke or Michigan, where address information may have been incomplete, or listed at locations such as Metro Airport without addresses, making it impossible to plot the locations. The maps include about 1,800 of the more than 2,200 tank sites listed in th state’s database of open cases.

To locate a leaking tank

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has a statewide list of leaking underground storage tanks. The database can be searched by county or by community.

Click here for a complete list of leaking underground storage tanks.