Baltimore County will pay a civil penalty of $28,968 and install a system to monitor underground fuel storage tanks under a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials announced this week.

The settlement resolves alleged violations of regulations designed to prevent leaks of fuel and hazardous wastes from the tanks, EPA officials said.

Computerized monitoring system for tanks at 13 locations costs at least $90,000.

Leaking tanks storing millions of gallons of gas, oil and other petroleum products are a major source of soil and groundwater contamination nationwide, EPA said.

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The violations occurred at sites such as tanks containing diesel fuel at the Woodlawn police and fire departments, a tank at the Middle River fire station and tanks at the Essex, Towson and Wight Avenue fuel centers.

Study: Chemo, radiation helps pancreatic cancer patients live longer

Chemotherapy and radiation after surgery may help pancreatic cancer patients live longer, Johns Hopkins researchers found, countering previous studies that found the treatment harmful.

Experts disagree on whether to administer the treatments because some European studies have suggested they can lead to a decrease in survival rates, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Lead author and radiation oncologist Dr. Joseph Herman and his team reviewed records of 616 patients, comparing the survival of the half who had surgery alone and those that had surgery plus chemotherapy and radiation.

Patients receiving treatment lived a median of nearly seven months longer, according to research published in the July 20 Journal of Clinical Oncology.