Underground Storage Tanks

2004 marks the 20th anniversary of the federal Underground Storage Tanks Program. In 1983, the CBS program 60 Minutes aired a story called "Check the Water", which brought national attention to families suffering from the effects of gasoline leaking from underground storage tanks at gas stations and other places. Less than a year later, on November 8, 1984, President Reagan signed into law legislation designed to protect the public from these petroleum releases.

In the 20 years that have passed, more than 1.5 million old, unsafe tanks have closed; almost 300,000 petroleum leaks have been cleaned up; nearly all underground tanks have been upgraded or replaced; and newly discovered leaks have dropped dramatically, from a high of over 66,000 in 1990 to roughly 12,000 last year.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary and reflect on these accomplishments, we must also focus on our remaining challenges, including: improving operational compliance; completing cleanups of known petroleum leaks; minimizing new leaks from new and upgraded tank systems; and cleaning up and reusing abandoned gas stations and other petroleum brownfield sites.

To mark the 20th anniversary through the year, EPA's Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) will highlight many of our past accomplishments and future challenges (summarized in a 2-page fact sheet (2 pp, 33K, About PDF)) and host a number of events. In the coming weeks and months, please look for new information on this web page highlighting what's being done to improve compliance; clean up known petroleum leaks; ensure new tanks are better designed and operated; and recycle America's abandoned gas stations. On March 1, 2004, EPA released a report celebrating the 20th anniversary of EPA's Underground Storage Tank Program at the national conference on underground storage tanks in New Orleans.

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