THEY ARE STILL DIGGING AT THE BECKER'S SITE IN DOWNTOWN ELMIRA

So there I was this morning looking down into a new very large and very deep hole beside the former one where the old fuel tanks were. This one easily had to be twelve to fifteen feet deep and as back on October 17/11 I had reported that the remediation was complete, I was second guessing myself. Turns out all is well. I chatted with an on-site worker and was advised that the new hole was simply where they were going to be burying the new tanks. I also received an informative lecture regarding the latest technology being used for service stations. Besides fibreglass components versus steel (which rusts) there are also double walled hoses and fuel lines which have sensors to alert if the inner hose develops a leak. Also there soon will be automatic controls shutting down service stations when a leak is alerted until it is completely repaired. Clearly the environmental damage done by gas stations over the last sixty or seventy years has been extensive and the cleanup costs prohibitive. Hence the ounce of prevention with new stations should avoid the pound of damage and 1/2 pound of cleanup costs in the future.