The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently revised their rules and regulations regarding the instillation, operation and maintence of Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) EPA Federal Register. The EPA implemented these revisions in hopes of better preventing and detecting groundwater contaimination.
The EPA altered the original 1988 UST Regulations and presented the following changes in July of 2015:
- Additional Secondary Containment Required for Tanks and Piping
- Additional Operator Training
- Minimum training requirements for Class A, B & C
- Retraining
- Additional Inspections & Testing
- Walkthrough inspections every 30 days
- Sump Testing
- Release Detection Equiptment Testing
- Additional Alternative Fuel Compatability Requirements
- Updated Industry Codes
- UST Instilation for emergency generator tanks, field constructed tanks and airport hydrant systems installed prior to October 13th 2015, must meet the requirements for release detection no later than October 13th 2018. Those installed after October 13th 2015 must meet those requirments when installed.
The EPA also revised the State Program Approval Regulations which directly coinsides with the UST regulations. The SPA gives approval to the local state governemnt to oversee the instilation and maintence of USTs. SPA Approved states have the lead role over the Federal Government and EPA in UST program enforcement. Non-SPA Approved states have to work directly with the EPA to follow the UST enforcement actions.
