§ 26. Mr. LlwydTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many incidents of leakage of petrol from underground storage tanks at garages there have been in the past two years; and if he will make a statement about the role of the Environment Agency in such circumstances.[14867]
§ Angela EagleIn the period since January 1995 the Environment Agency recorded 55 incidents of water pollution from underground petrol storage at petrol filling stations in England and six such incidents in Wales.
The Agency is not responsible for licensing petrol filling stations. However, it is able to influence the siting of new petrol filling station developments as a statutory consultee under Town and Country Planning legislation and can object to petrol filling stations in sensitive areas of groundwater.
There are powers available to the Agency under section 161 of the Water Resources Act 1991 to carry out remedial pollution works and recover costs. The powers 126W have not yet been used in relation to petrol filling stations. The new works notices power under section 161A of the 1991 Act, when brought into force shortly, will enable the Agency to require anti-pollution works to be carried out and thus be more proactive in preventing water pollution from petrol filling stations.
We are considering comments received during a consultation exercise earlier this year on water pollution from industrial and commercial oil storage, included the issue of whether petrol storage should be subject to additional measures of control.