South Carolina's Department of Health and Environmental Control announced recently that it's getting $3.3 million of federal stimulus money to clean up abandoned underground gasoline storage tanks that are leaking. The money should be able to clean up 66 sites around the state, mostly old gas stations.
"The main problem here is groundwater contamination, and that's something we don't want, obviously, because it's a threat to public health," says Adam Myrick, a spokesman for DHEC.
The sites are all considered "orphaned", meaning the owners either can't be found or aren't able to pay for the cleanup.
But how does cleaning up old, leaking underground storage tanks stimulate the economy? Myrick said since the money is coming from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, he would refer that question to them.
In a written release, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said, "EPA is putting people to work by serving our core mission of protecting human health and the environment." EPA Acting Regional Administrator in Atlanta Stan Meiburg added, "The state will use the funds to assess and clean up abandoned tank sites while providing a boost to its economy through the creation of green jobs."
A new report from the federal Government Accountability Office says that most of the federal stimulus money is not creating new jobs. The GAO found that 63 percent of the money so far has gone to Medicaid and 13 percent to the fund helping states plug budget holes.
South Carolina Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom, who chairs the state's Stimulus Oversight Task Force that's keeping track of state stimulus spending, says, "The report kind of underscores what a lot of people have been saying all along, and that is that the financial crisis was used by the White House and by Congress to increase government spending, to just expand government."
He says the stimulus package has not been effective, although he hopes it will be eventually.
As for the money for the leaking underground storage tanks, John B. Stephenson, Director of Natural Resources & Environment for the GAO, says the stimulus plan will spend about $200 million to clean up abandoned tanks in South Carolina and other states. He says it'll create jobs because the states will have to hire contractors to dig up the tanks and decontaminate the surrounding soil.
You can learn more about EPA's implementation of the ARRA: here.
For information on EPA’s implementation of the ARRA in South Carolina, go here.
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