REGINA – Bill Albert says he “can’t get very excited” about new regulations governing underground storage tanks in Saskatchewan, even though he was on the committee that recommended them.
Albert is president of the Environmental Fairness Association, a group of municipalities, farmers, service station owners and others who have been lobbying the provincial government to change the regulations.
He said the changes buy time for owners of small rural gas stations who have to pay for costly upgrading, but the committee should have dealt with the liability issue as well.
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Albert said service station owners are still responsible for the entire cost of upgrading, and that’s wrong.
“The government and the oil companies get the lion’s share, and then some, of a litre of fuel and we just get a pittance,” he said.
Albert said many business owners will be forced to spend their retirement savings just to get out of the business.
Not good enough
He cited the case of an 81-year-old service station owner who retired in 1988, spent $25,000 cleaning up his former business site and was then told by “overzealous bureaucrats” that his efforts weren’t good enough.
He said others will simply give up and walk away from their service stations because they can’t afford to decommission the sites and the question of liability has not been resolved.
Albert said the Environmental Fairness Association will continue to pressure government to make oil companies and governments more responsible for clean-up and upgrading.
Saskatchewan environment minister Berny Wiens said the previous regulations were “having a detrimental impact on small business” and the changes would “minimize financial impacts while maintaining public safety and environmental protection.”
