AUGUSTA – After some residents of Corinth reported that their water had an odd taste, state environmental regulators traced the problem to a leaking underground fuel tank.

Before the cleanup was over, 300 cubic yards of soil were removed from a site near a gas station where a tank was located, and $930,000 had been spent to prevent further contamination of the local water.

That is one example given by state environmental officials Wednesday of the threat posed by commercial underground tanks that are buried too close to water supplies.

Of the six New England states, only Maine and Vermont do not regulate the location of new underground storage tanks, David Lennett of the Department of Environmental Protection told the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee.

The DEP is pushing for passage of a bill to keep new commercial fuel storage tanks a safe distance from drinking-water supplies and sensitive geological formations, such as sandy or gravelly areas where water quickly seeps to aquifers.

Rep. Scott Cowger’s bill would authorize Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection to draft fuel-tank siting rules. Cowger, D-Hallowell, is House chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.

Without the ability to make rules on where fuel tanks go, too often they are buried near private and public drinking water wells, Lennett said.

Of the 128 new motor-fuel facilities registered with the DEP in the last three years, 43 percent are in sensitive geologic areas, said Lennett of the DEP’s Bureau of Remediation and Waste Management.

Part of the reason is that so much of Maine has high water tables and is subject to severe freeze-thaw action. In addition, groundwater aquifers supply much of the state’s water, according to Lennett.

The bill generated criticism at the hearing from the Maine Oil Dealers Association and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which both said it is too vague.

While applauding its goals, chamber Executive Vice President Christopher Hall labeled the bill as “open-ended” and said it “gives no direction to the DEP on what type of siting requirements are to be considered.”

Hall said the bill does not spell out whether it applies to all industrial underground fuel tanks or just gas stations.

But opponents said they are willing to work on the proposal so the ultimate objective – protection of water supplies – can be achieved.