Billions for clean water, parks

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Associated Press

The plan includes more than $9 billion for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. The money would be used to shutter abandoned mines on public lands, to help local governments protect drinking water supplies, and to erect energy-efficient visitor centers at wildlife refuges and national parks.

The Interior Department estimates that its portion of the work would generate about 100,000 jobs over the next two years.

"Most of the construction work we do, whether it is major repairs or building a visitor center — those are all contracted out," said Jeffrey Olson, a spokesman with the National Park Service. That means private firms would handle the projects, not state or federal workers.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090211/ap_on_go_co/stimulus_environment

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I question the gas station part of this plan. Why are we having to pay to clean up their mess? It seems they should be fined rather than left off the hook.

[Luciferous]

1. I was thinking the same thing nt

[mopinko]

2. so many of those tank sites are not even gas stations any more.

where they are still operating gas stations, they are mostly being cleaned up by the owners. but in many cases the station owners are long gone, and nothing can be done with the site until it is cleaned up. in dense areas like chicago, it can add up to some real blight.

[defendandprotect]

3. Good direction, but taxpayer money should NOT go to privatized usage . . .

We have to get the SUPERFUND going again with corporations funding it --- !!!

Bush let them off the hook for their polluting and let the fund pretty much die.

The corporations that caused the pollution should be paying -- not taxpayers.

And ... is this the ongoing repair we've seen at gas stations over the last 15 years

or so--? And, we're paying for it --- !!! WTF?

At EPA, the wish list is even more expensive. A 2003 report by the agency estimated that $276.8 billion was needed over the next 20 years to repair and improve the nation's drinking water systems. The stimulus package includes around $6 billion, and more than half of the money would be used to fund projects that protect bays, rivers and other waterways used as sources of drinking water.

Other big-ticket items at the EPA include about $200 million for a fund that is used to remove soil and groundwater contamination caused by leaky gasoline storage tanks and an estimated $600 million for cleanups at the nation's most hazardous waste sites.

In 2008, according to agency documents, the EPA ran out of money and could not take additional steps to address contamination at 10 sites in nine states.

More than 100,000 spills under gasoline stations need cleaning. But at a cost of about $125,000 each, according to EPA estimates, the stimulus money will only be able to pay for roughly 1,600 of them.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Those stations may not be owned by the big oil guys...

It's quite possible that the average discount gas station owner doesn't have $125,000 to clean up.

In fact, some of those leaks may flow under stations that are no longer operating.

If they are stations owned by big oil, the corporations should be responsible for the cleanup, though.