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U.S. EPA CITES 11 FACILITIES IN HAWAII FOR TANK VIOLATIONS

Release Date: 9/3/1996
Contact Information: Lois Grunwald, U.S. EPA, (415) 744-1588

  (San Francisco)--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) today announced it conducted 14 inspections and cited 11 facilities on Oahu for violating underground fuel storage tank regulations under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs management of hazardous waste. The facilities were fined $3,450.

     "Compliance with underground storage tank regulations is crucial to preventing groundwater and soil contamination from leaking underground tanks," said Julie Anderson, director of  U.S. EPA's Office of Waste Programs. "Fuel tank owners and operators who violate these regulations put our water supplies at risk and may create costly cleanup problems to deal with in the future."

     The 11 facilities had a total of 20 violations. These included a variety of leak detection violations such as: failing to conduct proper inventory control, tank and piping tests, and line leak detector tests.    

     The citations were issued immediately after joint inspections by U.S. EPA and the Hawaii Department of Health. The facilities cited with the most numerous violations were: the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus Transportation Services; U.S. Navy Subase Filling Station, Pearl Harbor; Texaco Services; and, Unocal Honolulu and Waimanalo.
                             
     The U.S. EPA's underground storage tank (UST) field citation program is designed to quickly bring owners and operators of underground fuel tanks into compliance with federal UST regulations. Facilities that receive a citation are required to comply with the regulations and pay any penalty within 30 days.  If they do not, they will be subject to a more formal enforcement action, which carries much stiffer penalties. The citations impose penalties which generally range from $50 to $300 per violation.  

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