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!
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 today from 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
202-564-2564
