Douglas County seeks proposals to remove underground tank in Foxboro

Jun. 1—FOXBORO — A store, post office and gas station on Douglas County Highway B once served the Foxboro community.

Those days are gone and now it's up to Douglas County to clean up the site, which includes an unregistered underground storage tank that could deplete the county's fund for tank removals.

"It's one of those properties that's just been kind of hanging out there," said County Clerk Kaci Lundgren. "I would really love to do something to get this off of our hands, get it cleaned up."

Now officials are seeking proposals to address the unregistered underground storage tank once used by the gas station that ceased operation prior to the 1960s, according to historical research on the site.

In March, Douglas County's Land and Development Committee approved a contract with MSA Professional Services to conduct a site assessment of the property.

According to MSA Professional Services, the building collapse prevented dipping into the tank to determine tank volume or how much residual liquid remains in the tank. Small trees and brush, in addition to the collapsed building debris, will need to be removed to get clear access to the tank. The project would include excavation and removal of about 60 linear feet of fuel system pipes.

Because debris on the site limited the assessment, Lundgren said the company could only provide estimates rather than accurate data to work with. After reaching out to Northern Interstate Construction, she said the county discovered the cost to remove the underground tank could range between $30,000 and $45,000, but the cost could go even higher depending on leakage and contamination.

"We have approximately $50,000 in the tank reserve," Lundgren said. "That would completely deplete us of that reserve, but I guess that's what it's there for." She said it's the only property the county currently owns that has an underground storage tank.

Members of the committee approved seeking proposals Tuesday, May 30 to determine what the cost for the tank removal would be.

"This is property that we've owned for a long time," said Supervisor Alan Jaques. "We've known it's going to hit us in the back of the head, and we need to do something about it, take care of it."

Jaques agreed with Lundgren about the purpose of the reserve fund and made the motion to seek proposals to remove the underground storage tank.

"If we don't clean it up, who's going to clean it up?" Jaques asked. "I don't think there's anyone standing in line behind us to clean it up."