Comment: progress in slow and frustrating gas leaks sometimes | Opinion columns

More than a year after hundreds of gallons were held from underground tanks in downtown Walla Walla, the memories of this dramatic event – fence, precautionary band and ongoing cleanup remain.

The progress has not been quick in the past few months. There were challenges in financing, access to real estate and responsibility. I know that the situation is frustrating for many. I will save you the legal nuances and admit that it looks as if paper stuff is being disturbed in progress.

A central pillar of the Washington law is that the dirt pays. In this case, this means that the owner of the petrol station, Stillwater Holdings Llc, is responsible for the cleaning up. Our task is to ensure that you do it safely and sufficiently.

Unfortunately, Stillwater Holdings does not have the money to finance the complete cleanup. So we had to stand up to protect the community and the environment from pollution.

In the meantime, Stillwater Holdings has resumed the sale of gasoline. This happened without our consent and there is a risk. It is not clear whether your insurance company is authorized in Washington.

There is a potential way for the insurer who is properly licensed. We work with the Department of Revenue and the Office of Insurance Commissioner to solve this problem. If the guideline is insufficient, we will complete the fuel sale.

In the meantime, we continue to concentrate on reducing the effects of the fuel that penetrated into the basement of neighboring properties. We are only a few days of new, more efficient devices that are installed to further protect the community.

As soon as the location is stable, we will use our authority to hold Stillwater Holdings into account and to regain the costs borne by the taxpayers.

I know that it was a long way to get to this point. And the work doesn't seem to move quickly enough. We will continue to press to ensure that cleaning is correct and the community is protected.

Brook Beeler acts as director of the eastern region of ecology. She is committed to the partnership with communities to preserve and protect Washington's land, air and water.