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General News: DEC Fines Town for Maintenance of Gas Storage Tank
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| A small oil tank was removed by the dog shelter |
July 10, 2007
The New York State Department of Environment Conservation (DEC) has issued a $10,000 fine to the town of Cornwall for several violations found in its petroleum storage tanks system during an inspection last month.
The violations include failure to color-code the fill ports of the tanks, a deficiency in a detection gauge, and failure to keep inventory records.
Town supervisor Dick Randazzo calls the fine “unfortunate” and he is asking state senator Bill Larkin to help negotiate a settlement that would be less costly for the town. “It is very is unfortunate and not in keeping with state and local governments working together without fining the municipality,” he said.
Randazzo said that the violations were for administrative requirements on three underground gas and diesel tanks at Town Hall and at the municipal highway department building on Route 32 in Cornwall. The town maintains a 3,000-gallon underground gas storage tank at Town Hall and a 1,000-gallon gas tank and 2,000-gallon diesel tank at the Highway Department.
After the violations were issued on June 14 the town followed the DEC’s advice and hired a consultant to review their oil and gas storage tanks, Randazzo said. Six days after the violations were written, the DEC issued its fine.
Wendy Rosenbach, the regional spokesperson for the DEC, says that while the violations did not pose any imminent danger, careful monitoring of the tanks is essential. “We want people who have petroleum bulk storage to be sure their facilities are being run properly,” she said. “In the end you could be missing a leak that could be a bigger problem if left undectected.”
Rosenbach also said that the inspection of Cornwall’s publicly-owned tanks was part of a federal mandate to inspect every petroleum storage facility in the state by 2008.
Supervisor Randazzo said that consultant hired by the town also reviewed two smaller underground oil tanks at the American Legion Hall and at the dog shelter and recommended that they be taken out.
By the end of June, those two small tanks had been removed, along with “very minor” contaminated soil under one of the tanks, Randazzo said. The tanks supplied oil for heating those two buildings and Randazzo said the town will have to decide over the summer how to heat them in the winter.
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