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GREENSBORO - A potentially leaky underground fuel tank once sat on property along Battleground Avenue, but decades later, officials aren't sure if it's still there.

A day after the Associated Press reported that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had known about such tanks across the nation since the 1990s, a FEMA news release said a tank was buried at the former site of WBIG-AM - a defunct radio station that once was a primary news outlet for Greensboro.

A Lowe's hardware store now occupies the former radio station site, which was graded when the new store was built and opened in 1992.

Chris Ahearn, a spokeswoman for Lowe's, could not confirm Wednesday whether the tank had been removed during construction of the store. Ahearn said Lowe's would check its records to see if the tank had been removed.

Many of these tanks were built to store 5,000 gallons of diesel fuel and placed across the country at the height of the Cold War in the 1960s to fuel electric generators that could run emergency broadcasts by radio stations in case of a nuclear attack or other catastrophe.

Made of steel, the tanks inevitably rust over time and allow fuel to escape into the soil and groundwater.

If diesel leaks into drinking water, affected people could be at a higher risk of cancer, kidney damage and nervous system disorders, said Rochelle Cardinale, one of the lead coordinators for underground tank cleanup in Iowa.

"The question is, are the communities on well water or on city water?" said Patrick Coyne, director of business Development for Environmental Data Resources.

Nearby Battleground neighborhoods receive Greensboro water service.

Coyne said contamination can happen through evaporated vapors in the air or by ingesting dirt that's been contaminated.

The general location for the old tank on Battleground checks out, said Marilyn Braun, coordinator of Greensboro's emergency management department.

"WBIG, at the time, and this is going back 30 years," Braun said, "it was the primary go-to station in emergencies."

The radio station eventually closed in 1986 and the land on Battleground was sold to Lowe's.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com