Existing tanks holding any of these 701 chemicals must, within 10 years, comply with the same requirements as new tanks. But the EPA has already announced that variances will be available at the end of ten years for those owners who demonstrate that their tank is protected against corrosion and equipped with an effective leak detector. A double-lined tank will leak later, rather than sooner, meaning that our grandchildren will pick up the tab, not we. But leak they will. However, the most glaring problem with the EPA's proposed regulations is its clear failure to keep gasoline out of the nation's water supply.
Gasoline is a rich mixture of toxic chemicals.
Even the additives to gasoline are themselves often toxic, such as ethylene dibromide, which the government recently banned as a fumigant for much of the nation's grain supply because it is carcinogenic. No doubt the most famous additive is lead, which is now being phased out because of its toxicity to humans and other forms of life. Unfortunately, as lead is phased out, the benzene content of gasoline is being increased to keep the gasoline's octane rating up. Benzene is a potent human carcinogen. The EPA estimates that one cancer would be caused among a million people if they drank water for a lifetime contaminated with 0.66 micrograms of benzene in each liter of water.