Media Release

15 Days until Earth Day.

Driven by the County Commission's Guiding Vision, everyday is Earth Day in Alachua County.  In April, each day leading up to Earth Day (April 22), the County will be highlighting programs, services, and strategies designed to lead Alachua County into a more sustainable future.

To view all "Earth Day Countdown" press releases on the County's Facebook page, click here and click on the Earth Day tab at the top of the page.

ALACHUA COUNTY, FL - The Alachua County Environmental Protection Department (ACEPD) oversees major clean-up projects to remove or treat contaminated soils and groundwater at petroleum contaminated sites in Alachua County.  ACEPD also conducts a rigorous storage tank compliance inspection program to prevent contamination of our local groundwater and soils from petroleum discharges from current fuel storage facilities.  ACEPD has been under contract with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for the past 20 years to provide petroleum clean-up management and storage tanks compliance inspections. 

The ACEPD Petroleum Clean-up program currently provides technical and budgetary oversight at over 60 high priority contaminated sites in the County to insure that work is performed in an efficient and expedited manner according to FDEP specifications.  Over 200 formerly contaminated petroleum sites in the County have been remediated over the last 20 years.  ACEPD's Tank Compliance inspectors have recently verified that all regulated fuel storage tank systems in Alachua County are in compliance with a State mandate to upgrade their systems to double wall systems. To date more than 98% of the facilities have already upgraded their tanks and the few that remain will be complying with this mandate through a consent order with the state.  The Storage Tank Section performs over 350 inspections at regulated facilities each year.

A major clean-up and soil removal project is currently on-going at the Poole Roofing portion of the City of Gainesville's Depot Park clean-up project off of SW Depot Road and S. Main Street.  The estimated amount of soil to be excavated from the Poole Roofing portion of the Depot Park remediation site is approximately 30,000 tons and for the entire Depot Park project well over 100,000 tons.  As many as 50 truckloads of soil are removed from the site on a given day.  ACEPD monitors FDEP's estimated cost share for the Poole Roofing cleanup which is more than $3 Million.

"Our successful Petroleum Clean-up and Storage Tank Compliance contracts and partnership with FDEP have provided the  local technical emphasis and oversight necessary to address the unique characteristics of contamination in Alachua County and has allowed contaminated sites to be cleaned up faster."  said John Mousa, ACEPD Pollution Prevention Manager, "The Storage Tanks compliance program is vital to preventing any continued contamination of our local environmental resources from underground storage tanks."

Click here to view ACEPD's Petroleum Cleanup Program website.

For more information regarding ACEPD's Petroleum Management Program, contact Alachua County Petroleum Contracts Manager, Tim Ramsey at 352-264-6843 or thr@alachuacounty.us.

40 Days of Change - For more information concerning events on and leading up to Earth Day, go to the University of Florida, Office of Sustainability�s "40 Days of Change" website by clicking here.