Mobil service station at corner of Verde Street and Highway 66, Flagstaff, 1966. Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, Archives Division, Phoenix, #98.5327.

Groundwater Fix Along Route 66

The legacy of the many gas stations located at one time along Route 66, the once-famous highway for getting your open-road kicks, are abandoned petroleum-contaminated sites that pose an environmental hazard to soil and groundwater.

Located along the route, its gas stations literally fueling the Route 66 adventure, the city of Flagstaff recently received a $200,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields grant to inventory its many contaminated sites and conduct environmental assessments. The funds also will assist the city to develop a comprehensive redevelopment plan and conduct community outreach.

Flagstaff’s situation is not unique; other Route 66 towns and cities, including those in Arizona along the state’s 200-mile stretch of the highway, confront similar problems. Arizona has gained national recognition in its efforts to cleanup such sites along the legendary highway.

In some ways it is a typical situation. Past, now abandoned activities result in an environmental cost borne later by others. Not all such issues are the same, however; this one is about Route 66, a celebrity road at a time of automotive glamor, an era and experience many now feel nostalgic about.

Those were the days of high-mileage cars and many gas stations along the route to “fill ‘em up.” Once the glory days of Route 66 faded, many stations went out of business. Underground tanks, that would not be up to today’s standards, corroded, leaking leftover fuel into soil and groundwater. Some stations had leaking storage tanks even when operating.

Abandoned sites remained undeveloped, becoming derelict lots, a liability to a town or city. Since ownership of the land would likely include responsibility for cleaning up the environmental hazard interested buyers were understandably lacking.

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality took action about two years ago, to fix Route 66, launching a Route 66 Initiative to investigate and clean up the approximately 350 leaking underground storage tank sites reported along the route in Arizona. Progress thus far includes closing 273, with cleanup completed or not needed. About 80 sites, or 22 percent, await further investigation or cleanup. Most are in the Flagstaff, Holbrook and Winslow areas.

By removing the environmental hazard the agency also provides an economic boost to a town or city. The state agency has provided a model to the EPA to use in other states confronting the same problem. About a year ago EPA officially joined ADEQ’s efforts to explore ways to assist local communities redevelop and create more businesses along the corridor..

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