It may begin by seeping into the soil. Then, surrounding areas will become contaminated. Soon, there may be nothing people can do to avoid it.
The issue here is leakage from gas stations.
Recently, eight gas stations in Michigan were fined a total of $869,150 for failing to submit reports of their contamination from underground gas leaks. All eight stations were formerly owned by BP Amoco PLC.
Of these eight stations, one is in East Lansing and another is in Okemos.
BP stations have reported more than 200 cases of underground leaks.
This shows an incredible amount of irresponsibility on the behalf of the owners of these sites. The East Lansing station has been leaking for the past 15 years, contaminating the surrounding soil.
With the soil contaminated, people living in the vicinity risk having their water affected by the chemicals. Although this is not likely, since water quality of wells is monitored before being treated, it is an issue to consider.
The danger of a possible contamination of local drinking water should be enough to encourage a crackdown on this. In addition to that is the risk of explosions.
Such an explosion occurred at the corner of Bogue Street and Grand River Avenue in the past and with these leaks, it may happen again.
The fines are not a way for the stations to alleviate responsibility. It is still their duty to take proper measures in cleaning the contaminated areas.
Michigan law requires owners or operators of a site to submit a report to the Department of Environmental Quality after a leak is discovered. The report must be filed in a timely manner and include the amount of a chemical leaked, how far it has spread, any risk it may pose to human health and a plan for cleaning the contamination.
However, these requirements appear to not be working and companies continue to act irresponsibly.
Approximately 60 percent of the state's filling stations were found to not comply with this requirement in 2006 - 63 percent of BP's sites were at the highest risk for not complying.
Michigan's number of leaking underground storage tanks is the third highest in the nation, with only California and Florida ranking higher. More than 9,000 underground leakage sites are known.
One of the major problems is a lack of funding to crack down on the offending sites. With problems of unemployment, education and health care looming, Michigan cannot hire employees to constantly monitor gas stations and other potential sites for leakage.
Owners are likely to continue to act with disregard for the consequences of their actions. And unless there is a significant change in the state's priorities, only a fraction of them will be caught and fined to make an example.
