With the help of a $57,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 10 leaking underground petroleum storage tanks in the Virgin Islands will get cleaned up by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.

DPNR spokesman Jamal Nielsen said four of the tanks are on St. Thomas and six on St. Croix.

"Leaking underground storage tanks are a major source of groundwater contamination in the United States," EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou said in a statement. "These funds will rapidly create jobs to investigate and clean up petroleum releases from leaking tanks, which pose threats to people’s health and the environment."

According to the EPA, the greatest potential hazard from a leaking underground storage tank comes when the petroleum or other hazardous substances seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater, the source of drinking water for nearly half of all Americans.

The funds will be used for overseeing assessment and cleanup of leaks from underground storage tanks or directly paying for assessment and cleanup of leaks from federally regulated tanks where the responsible party is unknown, unwilling, unable, or the cleanup is an emergency response.

The cooperative agreement between EPA and Planning includes a detailed plan for how the funds will be spent.

This money is part of $200 million appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, better known as stimulus funds, to address shovel-ready sites nationwide contaminated by petroleum from leaking underground storage tanks.