Environment
Court upholds $800,000 tab for leaking underground tanks
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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan is owed more than $800,000 for cleanup costs, civil fines and administrative penalties for failure to properly remediate three sites with leaking underground storage tanks in Berrien County, the state Court of Appeals has ruled. The tab may rise if the state has to complete the long-delayed work, but the defendants have asked the Michigan Supreme Court to review the case. At issue are petroleum products that leaked from underground tanks at two gas stations and a bulk fuel distribution center in Galien and Baroda, west of Niles and north of the Indiana border. The sites still haven’t been cleaned, according to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). According to the appeals court, Baroda-based Strefling Oil Co.