Comment Re:Why gouv pay for it in the first place? (Score 1) 113
Its not their mess, its tanks owned by third parties:
Often built for gas stations during the 1950s and '60s highway construction boom, the tanks corroded over time, spilling gas and diesel with potentially cancer-causing chemicals under properties and into aquifers.
The oil companies are paid to clean up the pollution caused by these tanks constructed for, operated and owned by third parties. The oil companies are chosen because they already have extensive inhouse expertise on the subject, so they are ideal for doing it wholesale.
Chances are, most of these tanks have been abandoned and their original owners do not exist, which is why local government step in.
Nonsense! They each outright own a large portion of such stations, either directly, or through secondary companies they set up. Not all of them are franchises.