Developing Life-Cycle Environmental Response Costs for Leaking Underground Storage Systems at Service Station Sites

Environmental and Economic Benefits from the Phase-out of Residential Oil Heating: A Study from the Aosta Valley Region (Italy)

“…Available data on soil and groundwater remediation procedures highlight that 68 suspect or actual leakage episodes occurred between 1999 and 2018, which involved heating fuel tanks, gas stations and other kinds of hydrocarbon storage, as reported in Table 1. Ten of these 68 sites have been remediated with a median cost of 114k€ which is consistent with data from the USA [5,6]. Table 1.…”

“…Interest on this topic was first raised in the Eighties in the USA, as the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) developed a specific program which identified more than 3.5 million USTs [4]. Since then, more than 500,000 leakage episodes have been observed according to different sources [5][6][7]. As for causes, Ram et al [5] found that 74% of fuel releases occur in the tank and/or the pipes, where structural failure (46%), corrosion (27%), and loose fittings (12%) are the most common causes, while the rest is due to incorrect filling operations.…”

“…Since then, more than 500,000 leakage episodes have been observed according to different sources [5][6][7]. As for causes, Ram et al [5] found that 74% of fuel releases occur in the tank and/or the pipes, where structural failure (46%), corrosion (27%), and loose fittings (12%) are the most common causes, while the rest is due to incorrect filling operations. The remediation costs for leaking underground storage tanks (LUST) are very large relatively to the small ground volume involved, ranging between 142k$ and 329k$ per each site in the USA [5,6].…”