A. The legislature recognizes the threat to the public health and safety and the environment resulting from pollution of ground water resources as a result of leaking storage tanks. The legislature also recognizes that some owners and operators of facilities containing storage tanks cannot take corrective action without placing their businesses in serious financial jeopardy.
B. The legislature finds that, because New Mexico is large in area and sparsely populated in some regions, it is in the public interest to take corrective action at contaminated sites so that fuel will continue to be readily available.
C. The purpose of the Ground Water Protection Act is to provide substantive provisions and funding mechanisms to the extent that funds are available to enable the state to take corrective action at sites contaminated by leakage from storage tanks.