APPENDIX K 



CAPE COD AQUIFER MANAGEMENT PROJECT (CCAMP) RECOMMENDATIONS 



UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS 



October, 1987 



Introduction 



The Cape Cod Aquifer Management Project (CCAMP) completed an investi- 

 gation of the threat to groundwater from underground storage tanks (USTs) 

 on Cape Cod. Focusing particularly on the towns of Barnstable and Eastham 

 and involving numerous interviews with officials at all levels of govern- 

 ment, CCAMP gathered data to document the extent of the threat from under- 

 ground storage tanks and examine the effectiveness of the regulatory con- 

 trols that are in place. CCAMP developed the following recommendations to 

 fill a number of the gaps that were discovered in the existing regulatory 

 framework and to focus particularly on the most prevalent types of prob- 

 lems in the study area. The major problems observed were the large number 

 of aging, leak-prone tanks and the large number of tanks in close prox- 

 imity to private- and public-water supplies. 



Strong interest in protecting groundwater from leaking underground 

 storage tanks is relatively recent at all levels of government. According- 

 ly, many of the following recommendations are aimed at effectively meshing 

 the regulations recently passed at the federal, state and local levels and 

 at educating the public and providing technical training to officials who 

 have new responsibilities concerning USTs added to their jobs. The majori- 

 ty of the recommendations suggest measures that can be implemented locally 

 to ensure more complete protection than can be provided by the state regu- 

 lations alone. 



Just one gallon of gasoline can contaminate one million gallons of 

 water. Once a water supply is contaminated, clean up may be prohibitively 

 expensive. It has cost over three million dollars and taken nine years 

 for the South Hollow Wellfield in Truro to resume pumping after contamina- 

 tion by a leaking gas station tank. In a 3,600 acre Zone of Contribution 

 (ZOC) to nine public supply wells in the town of Barnstable, CCAMP found 

 186 underground storage tanks -- 38% of them 20 years or older. (See Table 

 1.) There are already six confirmed hazardous release sites in the zone, 

 all from fuel storage areas. The probability of further contamination is 

 high. An EPA contractor has estimated that tanks 20 years and older have a 

 57% probability of leaking. While this ZOC is more developed than many 

 areas on Cape Cod, the situation is not uncommon Cape wide. 



