Morning Call uses EPA data to find contaminated underground tanks
Christopher Baxter and Tim Darragh of the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., write about underground storage tanks contaminating neighborhoods and water supplies in Pennsylvania. Their story says:
“But perhaps more fearsome is what is not known: the condition of abandoned or forgotten tanks decaying underground near streams and homes. The U.S. Government Accountability Office in 2005 estimated Pennsylvania had 2,334 incomplete cleanups at sites without a viable owner. “
Through interviews, they found that municipalities weren’t telling adjacent communities about contamination. The story includes an interactive database that shows the tanks’ locations.
Christopher says he started working on the story after a reader sent him a notice about a site owned by trucking firm Central Transport. “I started reading about it and realized it was a bigger problem and we hadn’t covered it,” he says.
Today’s Tip: Check the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Underground Storage Tanks to see if there are any tanks requiring cleanups in your area.
Christopher says each state is required to report data to the EPA annually. If you see there are issues in your area, you can find more specific details at your state agency’s site.
The Morning Call focused its story only on tanks in residential areas. They mapped the sites using Google Maps.
“The biggest thing we wanted to do was make sure story was angled to what people care about: home, family, neighborhoods,” he says. “They care less about a company in an industrial park.”
