Pence family's failed gas stations cost taxpayers $20M+

[Suppressed]

Pence family's failed gas stations cost taxpayers $20M+
Brian Slodysko, Associated Press
Associated Press • July 13, 2018
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pence-family-gas-stations-left-145445975.html

GARDEN CITY, Ind. (AP) -- Vice President Mike Pence turns nostalgic when he talks about growing up in small-town Columbus, Indiana, where his father helped build an empire of more than 200 gas stations that provided an upbringing on the "front row of the American dream."

The collapse of Kiel Bros. Oil Co. in 2004 was widely publicized. Less known is that the state of Indiana — and, to a smaller extent, Kentucky and Illinois — are still on the hook for millions of dollars to clean up more than 85 contaminated sites across the three states, including underground tanks that leaked toxic chemicals into soil, streams and wells.

Indiana alone has spent at least $21 million on the cleanup thus far, or an average of about $500,000 per site, according to an analysis of records by The Associated Press. And the work is nowhere near complete.

The federal government, meanwhile, plans to clean up a plume of cancer-causing solvent discovered beneath a former Kiel Bros. station that threatens drinking water near the Pence family's hometown.

[...]

[Suppressed]

This is why I get sick of many anti-environmentalist "conservatives".  "Pro-business" to them means dumping costs onto the taxpayer (kinda like Mussolini's economics). 

Businesses should be held responsible for their messes.  If that means financial assurance when they take on an endeavor that could hurt the public, then so be it -- or pass on personal liability.

[RoosGirl]

People back then used to use oil to stabilize sandy soils so they could be compacted to be able to pave and build on top of them.

[TomSea]

It wouldn't surprise me if this happens fairly frequently, the old abandoned gas station is part of America.

Looks like this one might still be going and playing on nostalgia:

[Frank Cannon]

This is why I get sick of many anti-environmentalist "conservatives".  "Pro-business" to them means dumping costs onto the taxpayer (kinda like Mussolini's economics). 

Businesses should be held responsible for their messes.  If that means financial assurance when they take on an endeavor that could hurt the public, then so be it -- or pass on personal liability.

The business doesn't exist anymore to sue and the shit they call "toxic" is gasoline, which is all over the effing ground in various forms without any problems. These stations rot into the ground all over the country and no one gives a shit. The govt' getting involved in this clean up is the problem.

[Suppressed]

People back then used to use oil to stabilize sandy soils so they could be compacted to be able to pave and build on top of them.

The heavy oil used for that is low in lighter volatile like benzene, and doesn't contain additives like MTBE.  The aliphatics of heavy oil aren't as mobile, and you don't get the groundwater plumes contaminating drinking water or leading to carcinogenic vapor intrusion into dwellings.
@RoosGirl

[Suppressed]

The business doesn't exist anymore to sue and the shit they call "toxic" is gasoline, which is all over the effing ground in various forms without any problems. These stations rot into the ground all over the country and no one gives a shit. The govt' getting involved in this clean up is the problem.

Set up a benzene infuser in your house and add some to your tapwater if it's so healthy.

[RoosGirl]

The heavy oil used for that is low in lighter volatile like benzene, and doesn't contain additives like MTBE.  The aliphatics of heavy oil aren't as mobile, and you don't get the groundwater plumes contaminating drinking water or leading to carcinogenic vapor intrusion into dwellings.
@RoosGirl

I'll let the EPA know so we can start using it again to build roads with.

My point is, we did all sorts of stuff back in the day because we didn't know it caused problems.   Besides that, how is this company the Pence family's?