Corroded underground fuel tank draws $80,000 fine for Minnesota trucking firm

State pollution regulators have issued a major fine against the owner of a Goodhue County trucking and excavating firm for illegally installing an aging, corroded underground fuel storage tank and camouflaging it in an attempt to fool inspectors.

Fitzgerald Excavating and Trucking has agreed to pay $80,000 — one of the largest penalties ever issued by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) against a small business — and to comply with state laws on the use of fuel storage tanks.

The violation was so brazen that federal and state officials considered filing criminal charges, said Nate Blasing, head of the MPCA's tank inspection program, but chose to take civil action instead.

"This was very blatant," Blasing said, adding that three-fourths of tank owners get high marks for complying with state laws. "He went to extraordinary lengths to hide it."

The case is also significant because it comes at a time when the state is struggling to fund inspections and cleanups from decades of abandoned and leaking underground petroleum tanks, about 31,000 of them across Minnesota. Leaky tanks have become a primary source of groundwater contamination in Minnesota and across the country. They also emit potentially toxic fumes, called vapor intrusion, that can collect inside buildings above them, which regulators now recognize as being far more toxic than was known previously.

In an interview on Monday, business owner Jason Fitzgerald contradicted statements in the legal agreement he signed, which described how he moved the tank to his property. He said the tank was on his property when he bought it in 2007, adding that he doesn't think he broke any laws. Fitzgerald said he agreed to the settlement "to get it over with."

"I'm questioning myself on that right now," he said. "They are not going to back off until they hit you with a fine."

The state's investigation began in the fall of 2015 during a routine inspection of Fitzgerald's company site in Goodhue, Minn. Inspectors found several empty above-ground tanks, which are exempt from state regulation. Fitzgerald told inspectors that he was getting fuel for his trucks from nearby gas stations, but changed his story when they questioned him about clearly visible tire tracks and puddles of fuel on a concrete slab at the site.

Holes in the slab led them to a 12,000-gallon underground storage tank, which is subject to state regulation. After further inspection, they found that the above-ground tanks were rigged to look like they were used for fueling, but the pipes were actually pulling fuel from the underground tank. And pipes were camouflaged by a toolbox and fake building support posts.

Blasing said investigators found that Fitzgerald had been hired to remove a 30-year-old storage tank from a gas station. Instead of disposing of it, he took it back to his shop, welded up holes that had been cut in its side, and installed it underground on his property.

It was being removed from the gas station because such tanks usually have a 23-year life span. Installing an old, corrosive tank with welded holes and no monitoring systems in place could easily have led to a major groundwater contamination, Blasing said.

Then sometime during the following winter, Fitzgerald dug up the tank and illegally disposed of it at a landfill, the MPCA said, despite repeated warnings that he was required to have an inspector on site when he did it.