The Department of Environmental Management and the state’s Underground Storage Tank Financial Responsibility Fund Review Board have said that homeowners and others who have incurred costs as a result of the Pascoag water crisis may be eligible for reimbursement from the UST fund.
DEM director Jan Reitsma says that Pascoag residents and businesses have coped for four months with water they cannot adequately use.
“Some people have taken individual and costly steps to alleviate the situation…Reimbursement of some or all of those costs, while it cannot ease the hardship of the water crisis itself, can at least ease the financial burdens people have faced,” Reitsma said.
The UST fund, financed by a one-cent tax on gasoline sold to owners and operators of underground storage tanks, can reimburse third-party claims against those responsible for contamination from petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks. The contamination of the Pascoag Utility District’s public water supply from methyl tertiary butyl ether, a gasoline additive, is believed to stem from leaking underground tanks at Main Street Mobil, whose owners have since filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
For information about filing a claim, contact Thomas Lazieh of the UST board at (401) 568-6222. He will be located at the Pascoag Utility District offices beginning Dec. 19, to help with the claim application process. Applications must be submitted by Jan. 30 for the March disbursement meeting, or by April 30 for the June disbursement meeting. Claims will be considered in the chronological order of when funds were spent.
