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MDE put American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money to work removing underground fuel tanks from a long-vacant Eastern Shore property – eliminating an environmental threat that otherwise might have gone unaddressed.
The $37,000 project in Princess Anne is just one of more than 80 taken on by MDE’s Oil Control Program utilizing money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the 2009 law designed to stimulate America’s economy and create and save jobs. MDE received $3.71 million to perform cleanup activities at sites affected by federally regulated leaking underground fuel storage tanks. Projects to use ARRA funding were orphaned sites, meaning there was no longer any existing company or individual responsible for the contaminated property or the current property owner is financially unable to address the issue.
Cleanup activities being performed by MDE Oil Control Programcontractors include drinking water supply well monitoring, installation of monitoring wells, subsurface investigations, geophysical investigations, real-time data acquisition through use of laser-induced fluorescence or membrane interface probe investigations, petroleum contaminated soil excavation, and removal of regulated underground storage tanks. Work is currently progressing in Baltimore County and 20 counties across Maryland.
One location that used ARRA funding to remove leaking tanks was the Princess Anne property, now owned by the Metropolitan United Methodist Church.
The property is on the southeast corner of Front Street and Somerset Avenue, near the church. Observations and record research show that the property was first developed as a residence prior to 1920. Between 1920 and 1940, the site was redeveloped and operated as a gasoline station. From 1940 to 1960, the structures changed to an unspecified commercial use. According to an interview with an adjacent landowner, the property was the site of a cab company before the structure on the property was razed. The site has been vacant and inactive for an indeterminate amount of time, possibly since the 1950s.
In 2004, a member of the Metropolitan United Methodist Church contacted the Oil Control Program. The member indicated that the land was recently donated to the church, and the church wanted to properly abandon the three gasoline underground storage tanks on site. But the church could not afford to do the work.
Out-of-service underground fuel tanks pose a threat to human health and the environment if they leak. Gasoline constituents like methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) have been a problem for many private well users throughout the State. Taking the tanks out of the ground limits these exposures.
In 2009, after receiving the Recovery Act grant, the Oil Control Program contacted church representatives to determine whether the church would be willing to work with the Program to clean up the site. An access agreement was signed, and the Program began the cleanup process by contracting the services of a private environmental firm to perform a subsurface investigation that would determine if there had been a release from the underground tanks. Additionally, a geophysics survey was performed to determine the number of tanks buried on site. Results showed that there were impacts to the subsurface and that the removal of the tanks was warranted. In January 2010, three tanks were excavated and a total of 42 gallons of old gasoline were pumped from two of the tanks.
For information on the site or more information on Recovery Act grants relating to the Oil Control Program, contact Paul Certeza at 410-537-4152 or by email at Paul.Certeza@maryland.gov.
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