Several years ago, my wife and I were thankful to become first-time homeowners through an inheritance. After moving in, we took steps to update the old heating system and convert from oil to natural gas. We chose a licensed company to remove the underground oil storage tank.
When they lifted the tank onto their truck, they discovered that areas of rust on the tank bottom had allowed an unknown quantity of oil to leak into the ground. The tank removal company was now bound by law to notify the state Department of Environmental Protection. The odor of oil in the sand under the tank was strong. I remember despairing when the truck carrying our old tank pulled out of our yard, as I began to realize the complexity of the task ahead.
My wife and I began to pray that same day. We wanted to be good environmental stewards of our new property, but we had read accounts in the local press of oil cleanup costs running into the tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars, and of existing dwellings having been moved off their foundations in order to effect complete cleanup.
