[ADEQ Media] ADEQ Cleans Up Leaking Underground Storage Tanks in 11 School Districts Throughout Arizona

[media@lists.azdeq.gov]

ADEQ Cleans Up Leaking Underground Storage Tanks in 11 School Districts
Throughout Arizona 

PHOENIX (Nov. 18, 2008) - Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
(ADEQ) Director Steve Owens announced today that the department has
completed cleanups of leaking underground storage tanks (USTs) at sites
in 11 school districts around the state.

The cleanup was part of ADEQ's innovative School Assistance Initiative,
which was launched a year ago to help schools across Arizona clean up
contamination from USTs on school property and to prevent future leaks
from the tanks.  The program is a joint effort by ADEQ's Tank Programs
Division and the department's Office of Children's Environmental Health.


"This unique partnership between ADEQ and schools and school districts
throughout the state has been tremendously successful," Director Owens
said. "This effort not only helped clean up the environment, it also
protected our children from potential exposure to contamination.  And it
has saved schools a lot of money, since ADEQ cleaned up the sites and
has given the schools technical assistance about how to maintain their
USTs in the future."

ADEQ is using money from the State Assurance Fund, which is the state
UST remediation fund, to clean up the contaminated soil and groundwater
at the school facilities. ADEQ also has provided and will continue to
provide technical assistance to schools and school districts to insure
that USTs owned and operated by the schools and districts are properly
maintained in accordance with the law to prevent future leakage.   
 
The schools and school districts where the cleanups have been completed
are listed below by county:

Coconino: Page High School, Page Unified District
Greenlee: Laugharn Elementary School, Clifton Unified District
Maricopa: Tolleson Union High School, Tolleson Union High School
District; Sunnyslope High School, Glendale Unified High School District;
Apache Alternative School, Scottsdale Unified District; Cave Creek
Unified District Maintenance Facility
Pima: Amphitheater Public Schools Maintenance Facility, Amphitheater
Unified District in Tucson; Marana Junior High School, Marana Unified
District
Pinal: Santa Cruz High School, Santa Cruz Valley Union High School
District in Eloy
Yavapai: Mingus Union High School, Mingus Union High School District in
Cottonwood
Yuma: Yuma Elementary District Transportation Building 

In addition, clean up activities are ongoing at the following schools
and districts:  Buckeye Union High School District Bus Maintenance
Facility; Somerton Elementary District Maintenance Facility; Crane
Elementary School and Rancho Viejo Elementary School in Crane Elementary
School District in Yuma; Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe Unified
School District; and Arizona Children's Association, a school for
students with special needs, located in Tucson.

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News media interested in additional information on this or any other
topic concerning the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality should
contact the Office of Communications at (602) 771-2215 or via email at
communications@azdeq.gov.

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