Durbin Announces $7.4 Million in Recovery Act Funding for Environmental Cleanup

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) today announced that the state of Illinois will receive $7,402,000 in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to assess and clean up underground storage tank petroleum leaks. Today’s funding is part of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcement of $197 million nationwide for environmental cleanup which the EPA estimates will create or retain a significant number of jobs and contribute to at least 1,600 cleanups around the country.

“Today’s funding takes an important step toward increasing the long-term safety of our drinking water while creating opportunities for growth in local communities across Illinois,” said Durbin. “Creating jobs and securing our environmental future are at the heart of the Recovery Act.”

The greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank is that the petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, which is the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans. Today’s funding will be distributed under the EPA’s Leaking Underground Storage Tank Program for two types of activities:

• Oversee assessing and cleaning up underground tank leaks, or

• Directly pay for assessing and cleaning up leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the cleanup is an emergency response.

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