FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 16, 2007
SRS UST program receives DHEC award
COLUMBIA – The underground storage tank program at the Savannah River Site in Aiken County has received a Certificate of Environmental Excellence for Underground Storage Tank Management award, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control reported today.
“The Westinghouse Savannah River Company is being recognized because it has again passed its annual inspections without a single violation making 13 years of continual compliance with the standards,” said Richard T. Caldwell, director of DHEC’s Region 5 environmental quality control office in Aiken. “Only a small percentage of the state’s 4200 facilities have managed to avoid violations of any kind during the same period of time, and the fact that the SRS has managed to do so with many tanks and a large capacity for storage is remarkable.”
Caldwell said WSRC operates 19 tanks at SRS with a storage capacity of 194,000 gallons.
“The state’s UST regulations are designed to protect the states’ environment and water,” he said. “DHEC does tank inspections from its regional and central offices in Columbia. Follow-up to inspections, regulatory assistance, corrective action and, if necessary, enforcement of violations are all part of the agency’s responsibilities.”
Caldwell said compliance inspections at facilities across the state are completed on an average once every 13 months.
DHEC’s Underground Storage Tank program, along with partners in the petroleum industry, awards quarterly certificates in three categories. WSRC is being cited in the non-retail category.
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For more information:
Thom Berry - (803) 898-3885
E-mail - berrytw@dhec.sc.gov
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