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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Dec. 4, 1998
98-205
Contact: Barry Rogowski, underground-storage-tank coordinator, (360) 407-7236OLYMPIA - Gas stations and others who own or operate underground fuel tanks face a Dec. 22, 1998, deadline to bring their tanks into compliance with federal standards. Those that do not comply will no longer be allowed to receive or dispense fuel.
The deadline concludes a 10-year national effort to replace, upgrade or decommission underground storage tanks (USTs) throughout the United States.
The requirement was established in 1989 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the goal of preventing leaks into the environment from faulty tanks. Environmental agencies in each state are charged with overseeing compliance with the federal mandate.
Over the past 10 years, Washington state's Department of Ecology (Ecology) has offered extensive technical assistance, education and outreach to tank owners. The department has disseminated grants to local governments to decommission old tanks. In addition to Ecology's efforts, the Pollution Liability Insurance Agency gave grants directly to rural tank owners to pay for tank upgrades, replacements and some cleanup.
During the 10-year implementation effort, 30,000 tanks in Washington state have been permanently closed - many of them replaced with up-to-date models. Another 12,000 tanks are in the process of meeting overfill, spill and corrosion-protection standards, but it's unclear how many will be completed before the Dec. 22 deadline.
"We've reached a 63 percent compliance rate so far," said Barry Rogowski, Ecology's underground-storage-tank coordinator. "We're ahead of a lot of other states, but still have a ways to go."
The EPA remains optimistic that between 66 and 75 percent of USTs nationwide will be in compliance by the deadline.
As result of tank replacement and decommissioning, leaking underground storage tanks have been reduced by 75 percent since 1990.
"Ultimately, we are protecting environmental and human health by having potential problem tanks taken out of our neighborhoods," Rogowski said.
This year, the Legislature authorized Ecology to implement a facility-compliance tagging program. Sites that are not in compliance will not receive a facility-compliance tag and cannot legally receive fuel. The approximately 120 companies that supply gas across Washington state requested this tagging procedure from the Legislature. Ecology has tagged 2,809 out of 4,467 sites as already being in compliance.
The goal of the tagging program is to make it easy for fuel distributors, Ecology inspectors and the public to determine which sites are upgraded.
Any facility that operates without a tag or any distributor that delivers product to an untagged facility can be fined up to $5,000 per day by Ecology. Special circumstances may warrant Ecology to issue a smaller fine and a compliance schedule to an untagged site.
At this time, the Washington counties with the lowest compliance rate are Ferry and Garfield, each with 17 percent compliance.
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
