Underground Storage Tank Equipment Should Be in Working Order
Also, while stating that it is "sensitive to future costs for UST owners and operators" and, as a result, has minimised required retrofits, the proposed changes will impose additional management requirements on the regulated community.
According to EPA, the 1988 amendments to the UST programme succeeded in reducing accidental releases from UST systems resulting from spills and corrosion. But approximately 7,000 releases were still reported in 2009. The Agency cites lack of proper operation and maintenance as leading causes of these releases. The more recent releases have been tracked mainly to piping failures and overfills associated with deliveries. Also, EPA notes data that show that required release detection equipment is only detecting approximately 50% of the releases it is designed to detect. This indicated to the Agency that a new emphasis on operator knowledge of potential failure modes and maintenance is required.
Hence, a review of ways the Agency is seeking to revise the existing programme shows an emphasis in areas such as required operator training and inspections. For example, in conformance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), EPA is proposing to add training requirements for operators with three levels of responsibility in such areas compliance, maintenance and spill response.
Inspection frequency would also be increased. For example, under current requirements, operators must test cathodic protection once every 3 years; inspect internal lining periodically; test line leak detectors annually; and maintain release detection equipment according to the manufacturer's instructions. The proposed revisions would require monthly walkthrough inspections of cathodic protection, release detection equipment, and other spill prevention equipment and also impose a new annual testing obligation for spill prevention equipment.
The proposal would also amend requirements for states authorised to run the federal UST programme. Specifically, EPAct required that states implement additional measures to protect groundwater as a condition of receiving federal funds. EPA is seeking to meet this requirement by compelling owners/operators to install secondary containment and interstitial monitoring for most regulated USTs, including petroleum tanks. Currently, these requirements apply only to hazardous substance USTs. (CERCLA excludes petroleum from the definition of a hazardous substance.)
Another proposed action would eliminate federal regulatory deferrals of field-constructed USTs and airport hydrant systems. EPA states that the technologies that were not available to monitor these systems from releases are now commercially available.
Other changes require that owners/operators demonstrate compatibility of their USTs with newly authorised fuel mixtures containing more than 10% ethanol or more than 20% biodiesel.
