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North Carolina is struggling to find money to clean up thousands of underground tanks that are leaking gas and oil into the dirt and water.
As a result, a new state report says it is time for businesses with such tanks to buy insurance to cover the costs of any clean-up.
North Carolina has spent more than $441 million to clean up pollution from private tank leaks since it set up a fund in the late 1980s to cover such expenses. But the state has a backlog of more than 6,500 locations that will take another 25 years to get to, according to a report from the program evaluation office at the state legislature.
The state fund is filled by tax revenue from fuel excise and inspection taxes and yearly fees on commercial tanks. But legislators have routinely had to step in to pump up the fund. In 2004, North Carolina enacted a one-year increase in the motor fuel excise tax to raise $30 million to cover claims. A few years later, legislators increased the fee.
But the increases have not made much of a dent in the backlog, which will cost an estimated $513 million to clear.
"I think everyone understands the fund was not properly capitalized," said Grover Nicholson, chief of the underground storage tank section at the state Department of Health and Natural Resources.
Environmental groups say it is time for gas stations and other commercial tank owners to take more responsibility for leaking tanks. "North Carolina should get out of the business of being the insurance company for any new tanks," said Molly Diggins, head of the N.C. chapter of the Sierra Club.
The legislature's program evaluation office said, in its report, that businesses should be weaned from the state fund over five years, giving them time to transition to private insurance.
Private insurance for tank owners sounds like a good idea to Robert Hodge, a Rowan County farmer and feed-store operator whose drinking water was contaminated by a neighboring gas station.
"I would go along with that wholeheartedly," Hodge said. "Then it puts the ball in their court. The insurance company is going to take the hit for it."
