When two leaking fuel tanks were removed from the storage yard beneath the Sewickley Township Municipal Building eight years ago, officials in the rural township had no idea of what trouble they had unearthed.
Supervisors recently learned those tanks might cost the township another $750,000.
Since 1999, Sewickley has already spent $254,000 researching and testing for contaminants related to the fuel tank removal, according to Lois Brandstetter, secretary and treasurer for the township.
Efforts to clean up the site are still in the early stages.
The township has spent the last several months testing and has found there is some contamination in the soil beneath the municipal building. Tests have also been performed on neighboring private property, but so far there have been no findings that would indicate any contamination has strayed beyond township land.
Consultant Mark Miller, of Moody and Consultants, a geology firm hired by the township to assess the potential contamination hazards, said a study is still ongoing and a final assessment won't be completed until later this year.
Miller estimated that remediation work could cost between $250,000 and $750,000.
"I do not know if any contamination has left the site, but we did an inventory of wells on nearby sites, and nobody's water supply has been impacted by this. We're just trying to determine the potential danger. We know it's at least one individual site, it's fenced in, and there's no water supply affected," Miller said.
In a letter sent to township officials, Miller said it was likely that contaminated soil would have to be excavated and disposed of, but he could not yet place a final price tag on the project.
Tests also still need to be performed to determine if vapors from contaminated soils are entering the municipal building. If that is the case, the cost of any remediation efforts would increase, he wrote.
The township had hoped that some of the remediation costs would be paid from an insurance fund. But in 2004, the Underground Storage Tank Indemnification Fund, a division of the state's Insurance Department, denied coverage to the township.
The state agency ruled that the township did not provide necessary documents required for the insurance claim to be processed.
The township has appealed the ruling, and solicitor John Campfield said a lawsuit is expected to be filed in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court against a former consulting firm that previously handled the remediation project.
Campfield said local officials only recently determined that the township faced a potential problem related to the long-removed storage tanks.
"We didn't know there was any remediation that needed to be done, because the tanks were permanent," Campfield said.
State environmental officials learned of the contamination problem two years ago, when they were notified about the township's insurance coverage being denied.
"As a matter of lag time, it's certainly unusual and a violation of our regulations," said Charlie Young, spokesman for the state's Department of Environmental Protection.
State regulations required the township to notify DEP within 24 hours after the tanks were removed and in writing within 15 days, Young said. Regulations then required the township to complete a study of potent contamination in six months and have a remediation plan in place 45 days later.
The township could face a fine, but that is unlikely.
"Our regulations are geared to make corrective actions go forward. We deal with storage tank problems on a daily basis," Young said.
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