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Fuel leaks from pipelines or fuel storage tanks have been found in some 45% of the gas stations checked in 2004. According to Environment Minister Shalom Simhon, the continuation of these leaks endangers the country’s groundwater sources. The Environment Minister intends to take steps, in conjunction with the Ministries of Finance, Justice and Infrastructure, to establish a rehabilitation fund for polluted land, as is customary in Europe and the US.The director of the Industrial Effluents Division of the Ministry of the Environment, Baruch Weber, has reported that out of some 1,500 gas stations in Israel, some 850 serve the general public. It is estimated that some 100,000 cubic meters of different types of fuel are stored in underground storage tanks in these stations. This number does not include gas stations in industrial plants and domestic fuel tanks. To prevent contamination of soil and groundwater, Israel promulgated regulations on the prevention of water pollution from gas stations in 1997. The regulations establish a long line of requirements for the purpose of preventing pollution, including periodic tightness tests to detect leaks from the pipelines and fuel storage tanks once in five years. According to Weber, these guidelines require testers to be authorized by the Israel Laboratory Accreditation Authority and to transfer the tightness test results to the competent authorities for the purpose of quality control. The Ministry of the Environment has called on the testers to provide a list of gas stations in which the tests were performed, but in practice only a list of results was submitted without details (name and location) of the gas stations. Based on the information submitted to the ministry, it was found that as of the end of 2004 only 44% of the gas stations (nearly 660 stations) performed tank tightness tests (most of them public gas stations) and only 13% (some 200 stations) performed pipeline tightness tests. According to these results, leaks from underground storage tanks were reported for 16% of the stations while leaks from pipelines were found in 35% of the stations. In other words, leaks were discovered in some 45% of the gas stations checked. According to conservative estimates by Dr. Haim Michlin of the Center for Quality Assurance and Reliability at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, based on these results, total leaks from public gas stations in 2004 ranged between 600,000 liters and 1.5 million liters. According to Weber, it should be emphasized that pipelines and underground tanks are not the only sources of leaks from gas stations. In fact, about half of the soil and groundwater contamination from gas stations results from overfilling and spills (especially during the filling of underground tanks). Additional Statistics
The severity of the contamination of groundwater by fuel has been highlighted in recent years as may be seen from the following examples: - According to data provided by the Ministry of Health, fuel contamination was found in more than 11% of the drinking water boreholes in the Tel Aviv area.
- Nearly every borehole along the route of the future Tel Aviv subway was found to be heavily polluted by fuel, most probably from gas stations.
- Despite the small number of boreholes performed, significant pollution was found in a substantial number of gas stations. In some cases, a layer of free-floating oil was found on the groundwater surface, reaching a thickness of between dozens of centimeters to one meter.
- A Ministry of Health survey of wells supplying drinking water for the purpose of discovering the presence of a gasoline additive which is not routinely monitored - MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) - found this fuel component in some 10% of the wells.
- A survey undertaken by the Ministry of the Environment in the Tel Aviv region discovered fuel vapors in shallow boreholes drilled near gas stations (piezometers) in some two-thirds of the stations.
Fuel includes components which are known carcinogens and are potentially very dangerous to human health. Based on the permitted concentration of pollutants in drinking water, one liter of fuel introduced into a container of a million liters of water is enough to disqualify this water from serving as potable water. This pollution potential also exists for fuel leaks from gas stations.
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