Stimulus Money Goes Toward Tank Leak Clean Up

By Colleen Chen, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Throughout the country, there are underground storage tanks that are leaking petroleum. In Oklahoma, there are 300 active sites.

The Environmental Protection Agency is dispersing $2.3 million in stimulus money to Oklahoma to go towards cleaning up underground petroleum storage tank leaks in the state.

It's work the Corporation Commission has already been working on for several years. Usually the funding comes from grants and from taxes paid by those who have underground tanks on their property.

"The money will be applied to sites we've already been working on. The funding comes from the same pool from which we've applied for grants in the past. Now a portion of those grant dollars are under stimulus funding," said Matt Skinner with the Corporation Commission.

However, Skinner said the stimulus title will open the funds up to help get the work done faster, because the money will come sooner. Typically, the projects take much longer.

Cleaning up the sites is crucial to protect drinking water from petroleum contamination. Sites also have potential to become new businesses once a clean-up is complete and approved by the EPA.

"There's also business consideration, if a site is polluted nothing else can be built on it. There's no job creation, no business creation, you just have dead land," Skinner said.

The money will go towards finishing the clean-up on 24 sites in Oklahoma:

1. Laverne, OK

2. Tulsa, OK: 4634 E. Apache

3. Apache, OK: James Karokas

4. Tulsa, OK: 3820 Charles Page Blvd.

5. Milfay, OK: Milfay Store

6. Pauls Valley, OK: NE Corner of Ash & Paul

7. Vinita, OK: 409 S. Wilson

8. Unmarked

9. Unmarked

10. Langley/Westville

11. Amber, OK: Ivie Conoco

12. Newcastle, OK: 10th & Main

13. Guthrie, OK: 223 S. Second

14. Stratford, OK: Woods Tire Shop

15. Broken Arrow, OK

16. Midwest City, OK : Former S&S Station

17. Dewey, OK: Rt. 1, Box 73

18. Ardmore, OK: Springdale Rd. & Lake Murray Dr.

19. Ft. Gibson, OK: 310 W. Poplar

20. Unlisted

21. Sapulpa, OK: 420 W. Dewey

22. Pawhuska, OK: Jerry's Food Mart

23. Norman, OK: 2000 W. Main

24. Welch, OK: Intersection of Highways 10 & 2