N.J. fund to help homeowners fix underground tanks runs out of money, creates $33M of spill cleanups | NJ.com

N.J. fund to help homeowners fix underground tanks runs out of money, creates $33M of spill cleanups | NJ.com: N.J. fund to help homeowners fix underground tanks runs out of money, creates $33M of spill cleanups

Published: Tuesday, May 10, 2011, 10:23 PM Updated: Wednesday, May 11, 2011, 12:08 PM

By Christopher Baxter/Statehouse Bureau
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Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerMarty Lipp poses in front of the underground storage tank removed from his Maplewood property. Since a popular Department of Environmental Protection fund to help remediate the tanks dried up, Lipp and some 1,300 others across New Jersey will either have to pay for festering environmental problems all by themselves - or wait to start the work.

For Marty Lipp, the only thing deeper than the 8-foot hole contractors dug in his driveway to remove an old heating oil storage tank may soon be the one in his wallet for having to unexpectedly pick up the tab for the work.

Lipp, 53, of Maplewood, will now have to fork over up to $12,000 after a popular state fund created to help residents remove leaky underground tanks ran dry last week — just five years after its coffers bulged with $90 million.