Hundreds of toxic tanks uncovered in RI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - There are 2,700 underground storage tanks buried in Rhode Island. Those are just the ones large enough to be regulated, or quite frankly, the ones the state knows about. The real scary number, is how many are leaking.

The Problem

Fourteen years ago in historic, downtown Newport, an underground tank at a gas station busted open, silently leaking fuel underneath the soil. No-one knew, until people in a nearby courthouse started to smell something bad.

Tim White: "Do we have any idea how much fuel leaked out of those tanks?"

Paula-Jean Therrien, Principal Environmental Scientist, DEM: "No we don't. [There's] no way to estimate."

The tanks were yanked out immediately, but the polluted soil remained. Then, a window of opportunity. The city of Newport planned to repave the brick street, and the federal government coughed up stimulus money to rehab the toxic soil.

"The projects we're selecting... are projects that probably would not have happened if we didn't have the stimulus money," Therrien said.

The $1 million stimulus grant is to take care of 20 to 25 sites affected by underground tanks in Rhode Island. But Target 12 has learned, that's just a drop in the leaking bucket.

"Right now we have 300 that need some type of cleanup," said Terry Gray, Assistant Director, RI Department of Environmental Management.

Gray said about 225 of those tanks are gas stations. Many of the tanks are in clusters in densely populated areas such as Providence and Aquidneck Island.

• See where the tanks are located on the Eyewitness News Tank Finder

"I don't think people realize just what's under their ground in the neighborhood sometimes... they're out there and some of them do present a risk you don’t even see," Gray said

Gray is the D.E.M.'s "tank guy." He's seen a lot of scary things buried in the ground. But the real fear lately is money. A fund to help clean-up these sites has been slashed.

Every time you fill up your car, a penny a gallon used to go into something called a 'Underground Storage Tank Fund.' But last year the general assembly cut that in half, giving the rest to RIPTA.

Overnight the fund went from $4.5 million to $2.2 million. That's money used to reimburse business owners who remove leaking tanks.

"The expenses are still the same so we're starting to build up a little bit of a backlog," Gray said.

A backlog doesn't site well with Therrien.

"[T]hat's much too dangerous," she said.

Remember, in Newport it took 14 years to remove the toxic soil. Thanks to the stimulus, that underground nightmare is now a success story. But that money will soon run out.

"If the timing hadn't of occurred the way it had, it just never would have happened," Therrien said.

The D.E.M. has successfully whittled down the number of leaking tanks from 1,800 to 300 in just 10 years. But, Gray said he's concerned the shrinking fund will mean those responsible for cleaning up leaking tanks won't be able to get it done.