Fond du Lac Resource Management

Brownfields
Underground Storage Tanks

There are 5 active Underground ground Storage Tanks (UST’s) facilities within the boundaries of the Fond du Lac Reservation. 4 of the facilities are C-stores with multiple active UST’s (1 owned and operated by the FDL reservation) and an airport with 2 active UST’s bringing the total of 11 active UST’s on our reservation. There are also 22 UST’s that are not in operation and have been closed.

The presence of UST’s that hold petroleum on our reservation presents a potential hazard to the environment, which in turn can directly affect the health of our people on the reservation. That is why all Underground storage tank owners and operators are required to implement the Technical Standards and Corrective Actions policies that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed and consequentially passed as Law.

These comprehensive regulations were designed to achieve the following goals:

Preventing leaks by requiring owners/operators to close or upgrade old substandard tanks or install new, improved, and safer tanks that will not easily corrode and leak.
Detecting leaks quickly by requiring owners to put in place one of several leak detection methods, such as automatic tank gauging, interstitial monitoring, and vapor or ground water monitoring.
Cleaning up leaks quickly and safely by requiring tank owner/operators to have the financial resources to clean up a site if a release occurs.

To achieve these goals the owners /operators of our UST facilities must be trained and taught these standards in order to implement them into their facilities operation plans.

Because of the number of UST’s on our reservation with more coming in the future and the potential for more to be found, I found it necessary to implement a compliance assistance objective to the Brownfields program. With great appreciation the EPA also agreed to this objective.

The main objective of the compliance assistance work is to provide UST owner operators on the FDL Reservation with the assistance needed to achieve the regulations goals as stated above.

If you have any questions about Underground storage tanks or maybe concerns or knowledge of existing UST’s in your neighborhood please call Mike Kesner at 878-8029.