TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Pollution from underground storage tanks at shuttered gasoline stations has plagued Michigan for years, as state officials and retailers battle over cleanup, Bridge Magazine reports. With 9,100 sites, the state has the second most polluted leaking underground storage tanks (LUST) in the nation.

Fuel from leaking tanks have crept into soil and groundwater, sometimes even into surface waters and drinking water wells. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found 1,440 of Michigan??s LUST sites to be an immediate risk to human health.

In the 1980s, federal regulations changed how gas stations stored fuel underground, moving away from metal tanks to fiberglass ones. Leak detection systems help alert owners of small leaks.

In Michigan, the state??s LUST cleanup program has degenerated, with the state having one of the country??s worst cleanup completion rates. Complete cleanups have plummeted 80% since the late 1990s, with the average cost four times the national average.

"We basically need to reinvent the program so we can get back to being one of the leaders in the nation in terms of managing our LUST sites," said Anne Couture, acting chief of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality??s (DEQ) remediation division. "We used to be at the forefront and now we are near the bottom."

Contributing to the low cleanup rate are changes to the state??s environmental liability standards, alterations to DEQ cleanup policies and decimation of the state??s LUST funding.

Legislation currently in the Legislature would reform the program. "The increasingly complex environmental compliance requirements and the inability to close LUST sites are inhibiting job creation and business growth in Michigan," said Mark Griffin, president of the Michigan Petroleum Association/Michigan Association of Convenience Stores.

The U.S. Senate recently approved raiding the federal LUST fund to allocate those monies for the transportation bill.