ConVault, Inc. Attends California State Water
Resource Board (CSWRB) Seminar on
Underground Storage Tank Deadline-12/22/98

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Fresno, CA–Over 200 UST owner/operators recently gathered at one of a series of fuel storage seminars prepared by the California State Water Resource Board in anticipation of the US EPA deadline for tank compliance scheduled for 12/22/98.

In addition to traditional knowledge about the UST deadline which provides that a UST owner/operator must alternatively:

1) replace his UST with an AST;

2) remove his UST (closure);

3) repair his UST to 1998 requirements OR,

4) retrofit his UST (install additional equipment such as cathodic protection, monitors, etc.) to 1998 requirements.......each state is conducting its own internal briefing program for UST owner/operators to enable them to comply with the US EPA deadline.

US EPA Agency Administrator, Mrs. Carol Browner, recently went on notice in the Tulsa Letter (a publication of PEI) confirming that there will be no extension to the UST deadline as the Agency has provided a 10-year period for compliance and environmental concerns must be addressed to insure overall protection of our air and water resources.An additional series of statistics divulged in the CSWRB seminar are, as follow:

a) in 1984, when the 10-year notification period was initiated (the 10 years actually began in 1988), the state of California had 150,000 USTs;

b) by 1990, the state of California reports that the number of operating USTs had dropped to 65,000 units;

c) as of this summer, the Agency advises that the state of California still confirms 30,000 USTs are not in compliance.

With only seventeen months remaining on the deadline, CSWRB further advised fuel operators of what will happen following the deadline:

I) fuel suppliers will not deliver to a non-compliant UST owner/operator as identified by an Agency certificate;

2) the UST owner/operator will have to purge the tank and obtain fuel from an alternative source.

In addition, the attempt to take last-minute corrective action will not be considered as having met the time line. Therefore, the Agency will place a last-minute owner/operator on a waiting list (currently twelve months) for re-certification of his/her facility.

The fuel supplier will not be authorized to deliver petroleum product until the Agency has deemed that compliance has taken place.

A severe consequence of this entire scenario involves the UST owner/operator who is attempting to comply and must conduct site testing to determine what method of corrective action will be performed. If, in the course of conducting this site test, the area is determined to have been contaminated by a leaking underground storage tank, an entirely new course of regulatory requirements are triggered. These include the costly experience of site cleanup. Under the best of circumstances, the state of California may be able to help subsidize the cost of the cleanup with an upper limit of $1 Million per occurrence–-however, this is reimbursement funding which also includes non-reimbursable deductibles.

In closing, if you are facing fuel storage problems today as a result of doing business "with the folks who brought you leaking USTs" and now recommend that you replace USTs with their new steel-clad aboveground versions, please consider the track record of ConVault.