What are leaking underground storage tanks and how are they being cleaned up?

By JORDAN GASS-POORE, The Uproot Project

It’s been decades since residents of a tiny Rhode Island neighborhood found themselves dealing with tap water tainted by gasoline leaking from tanks under service stations a few hundred yards from their homes. Their plight drew attention to the problem of leaking underground storage tanks, which remain a leading cause of groundwater pollution even after more than a half-million sites have been cleaned up. Nearly half of Americans depend on groundwater for their drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA requires owners and operators of underground storage tanks to install approved leak detection equipment and to regularly test these systems. But they aren’t foolproof.