[blucar]

Unfortunately preserving the past and protecting the future are not on the same page.
I have been involved with the ownership of several properties that way back in their past, had underground fuel storage tanks that predated my ownership of the property.
When I bought the properties there was no issue with underground contamination that may or may not have been caused by leaking fuel tanks which were never removed from the property..
Fast forward to the '80's/90's, enviromentalists went looking for possible contaminated sites which were resulting in contamination of ground water. Title searches and old records of fuel deliveries turned up properties that had been fuel stations, in some cases the service station had been torn down in the 1940's/50's with a newer building replacing it.. However, as it turned out the old tanks and contaminated soil was not removed..
I wont burden everyone with the huge costs that I incurred cleaning up the properties that were contaminated by someone else, prior to my ownership, I'll just say that we only have one "Earth" to live on, so we have to take care of what we have.