Target 12 reveals a hidden danger

PROVIDENCE (WPRI) - The Target 12 Investigators have uncovered "Hidden Danger." Hundreds of storage tanks are buried throughout Rhode Island and they're leaking dangerous chemicals. You could have one of these hidden tanks in your neighborhood, and not even know it.

There are nearly 3,000 underground storage tanks buried in Rhode Island. Those are just the ones large enough to be regulated. The problem can be knowing when one of those springs a leak. Rhode Island has hundreds of leaking underground storage tanks buried throughout the state. At least, those are the tanks the Department of Environmental Management knows about.

"They could be leaking and we wouldn't know until something went wrong," said Paula-Jean Therrien, Principal Environmental Scientist, DEM.

Like when fuel shows up in your water, or you start to smell something in your basement. And then there's the clean-up. It's messy, and expensive.

"A little more than $80,000 and that is just the contracting portion of this," Therrian said.

Terry Gray is the DEM's "tank guy." He's seen a lot of scary things buried in the ground, like a buried rail car that was found in Olneyville 10 years ago. It was used by a factory as a makeshift chemical storage tank.

"They're out there and some of them do present a risk you don't even see," Gray said. "We were kind of surprised when we opened up the hole there was a full rail car there."

Gray says it's getting increasingly rare to find tanks no one knows about underground. But they're out there.

"I think last year we found 20 of those," he said. "[There are] no records. They've been closed for a long period of time, in many cases the owner of the property doesn't even know they are there."

Wait until you hear how many tanks the state has uncovered that are leaking right now. The number may shock you, and they are all over the state.

Tonight on Eyewitness News at 11, we'll tell you where these hidden leaking tanks are and what's being done.