Tank Trouble Tuesday

Suspect a water ingress in your UST? Many times a TankCam inspection can identify the source of the ingress and reveal hidden problems such as the corrosion in this Texas tank.

Tank Trouble Tuesday

The TankCam HD inspection of a fiberglass tank featured below shows an example of peeling and flaking observed during a standard inspection. 

Six Month Countdown to EPA Federal UST Regulations Deadline

Six months from today, key elements of the 2015 Additions to Federal UST Regulations will go into effect.

If your UST site is located in Indian country, the District of Colombia, or a state without a UST State Program Approval (SPA), now is the time to prepare!

Find links to your state requirements

With eight regional offices across the US, our employees know the ins and outs of your local and state-level regulations and can assist you with your compliance needs.

As of October 13, 2018 requirements will include:

• Class A, B and C UST operators trained, including all designated Class Cs
• Class C employee must be on-site
• Train new Class A/Bs within 30 days
• UDCs/sumps must be liquid tight
• Upgrade to double wall piping if 50+% of single wall pipe run is replaced
• Keep testing/inspection records for at least 3 years
• Must respond to all sump alarms
• Deferred field constructed USTs and airport hydrant systems fully regulated

Here's a message issued on October 13, 2017 by Carolyn Hoskinson, Director of the EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks.

Dear UST Community:

I am writing to remind you that one year from today –October 13, 2018 – is the deadline for meeting the remaining UST requirements in the 2015 revised UST regulations. The October 2018 deadline affects UST owners and operators in Indian country and in states, territories, and the District of Columbia (referred to as states) without UST state program approval (SPA).

The regulation which was published on July 15, 2015 became effective on October 13, 2015.  Some of the requirements in the regulation were effective immediately. Other requirements were effective within 6 months, or by April 11, 2016.  And the last requirements become effective 3 years after the effective date of the regulation which will be October 13, 2018.

States with state program approval must re-apply by October 13, 2018, if they wish to retain program approval status, by adopting and receiving approval of the updated regulatory requirements.  Many states have already been working with EPA, and we welcome states’ requests for EPA to review their draft UST regulations and their SPA applications.  EPA has already reviewed draft state regulations for 30 states.

UST owners and operators in states with program approval must continue to follow their states’ requirements, which may be different from the 2015 federal UST requirements. Your state UST program can tell you if and when your state’s requirements and associated compliance deadlines may change. EPA’s state UST program web page  provides state contact information.

Our website also provides further information about SPA and the October 2018 deadline.

EPA is updating our UST inspector training to incorporate the new 2015 requirements and is developing an operator exam. Both resources will be available via EPA’s website in January 2018.  As we get closer to launching both the training and exam, I will send you details about their availability.

As always, I thank you for all that you do to help us keep our environment safe from petroleum UST releases. If you have ideas or feedback on what EPA can do to better assist you in achieving compliance, please contact me or Tony Raia (raia.anthony@epa.gov; 202-566-1021) of my staff.

Carolyn

Hoskinson.carolyn@epa.gov

202-564-2564

Tank Trouble Tuesday

A TankCam inspection may reveal an issue you were unaware of, such as the STP overflow in this Illinois tank. 

Each visual inspection looks for evidence of undesirable conditions such as blistering, cracking, corrosion, debris, and more -- giving you a clear view of what's going on inside your UST.

Tank Trouble Tuesday

What would a TankCam® inspection of your USTs reveal?

The inspections of five single-walled fiberglass tanks in Arizona revealed a mix of possible cracks, flaking, blistering, and droptubes on the bottom of three tanks.