CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection say 1,100 above-ground storage tanks registered with the state are “not fit for service.”
Kelley Gillenwater, spokeswoman for DEP, said as of Monday the agency had received inspection certificates for 28,700 storage tanks. Owners were required by law to register those tanks in October and had to provide documentation of inspections by Jan. 1.
Gillenwater said more than 50,000 tanks have been registered.
“Obviously there is a gap there of about 20,000 tanks,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they haven’t been inspected, it just means we haven’t received any paperwork.
Of the 28,700 inspections received, 1,100 were marked by inspectors as “not fit for service,” Gillenwater said. Officials, however, do not know why those tanks did not pass inspection.
Gillenwater said officials also remain in the process of determining whether any of those 1,100 tanks are located in “zones of critical concern,” meaning they are located near water sources for communities or contain toxic chemicals which could affect nearby communities. Officials estimate about 8 percent of the above-ground storage tanks in the state are within those zones of critical concern and would require the most stringent inspections.
Senate Bill 373, the Water Resource Protection Act, was drafted and passed last session in response to the January 2014 chemical spill at Freedom Industries, which tainted the water supply for hundreds of thousands of West Virginia residents in and around Charleston.
The act requires the registration and inspection of any tank holding 1,320 gallons of liquid, that is 90 percent aboveground and has been in a fixed location for more than 60 days. State officials have estimated as many as 80,000 above-ground storage tanks meet those requirements.
Gillenwater said officials are still receiving inspection certifications and have begun to reach out to the owners of registered tanks that do not yet have an inspection on record. Additional registrations also continue to trickle in, she said.
The West Virginia Legislature’s 2015 session begins Jan. 14, and lawmakers have indicated they may revisit the storage tank requirements which have been criticized by businesses as too expensive and over-regulating.
Officials with DEP say they have not and will not request changes to the law.
“Our focus is carrying out the law as it is right now,” Gillenwater said. “Of course we will comply with and enforce any changes made by the Legislature in the upcoming session.”
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