LDEQ Underground Storage Tank Program

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LDEQ Underground Storage Tank Program
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2008 LOMCSA Conference Presentation

• LDEQ USTD Update
• Hot Topics
• Energy Act Status
• MFUSTTF Update

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LDEQ USTD UPDATE

• New Executive Staff
• USTD Supervisors in Lafayette, Monroe, New
  Orleans and Baton Rouge
• Staff now in Harahan, Mandeville, Pineville,
  Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, Shreveport,
  Baton Rouge and Lockport offices
• Total staff headcount in USTD 43

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(No Transcript)
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LDEQ USTD UPDATE

• Some remediation oversight work still performed
  by other Divisions but decreasing
• Contractors being used to assist in performing
  inspections
• Small business assistance working with owners
• Enforcement and trust fund remain separate but
  closely coordinated.

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USTD Universe

• 4573 sites (not closed), 4100 paying invoices
• 380 Stage 2 Vapor Recovery sites 80 Stage 1
  sites
• 841 UST Remediation Sites, 715 trust fund
  eligible
• 78 UST Post-Hurricane sites
• 173 UST Remediation Sites handled outside of
  USTD.

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USTD NumbersJuly 1, 2007- June 30, 2008

• NFA letters 112
• Comfort letters 76
• Closure Complete letters 17
• Total UST Remediation Sites Closed 205
• Closures 467 tanks
• Installations 281 tanks
• Change of Ownerships 408

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USTD NumbersJuly 1, 2007 June 30, 2008

• CEI Inspections Total 1221
• CEIs USTD 687
• CEIs Contractor 534
• Other Inspections Total 855
• Closure 121
• Installation 14
• Incident 30
• Follow Up 56
• Stage 2 380
• Remediation 475
• Total UST Inspections 2076

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USTD Outreach - Brochure

• Reporting
• Recordkeeping
• Reminders

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E-Newsletter
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USTD Website
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XP Class
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USTD Hot Topics
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Common Compliance Issues

• Improper release detection performance or no
  release detection
• No corrosion protection on metal flex hoses
• Not maintaining required facility records
• Not updating Registration forms (UST-REG-01 and
  UST-REG-02).

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Lined Tanks The Issue

• Tanks are required to be re-evaluated 10 years
  after upgraded by lining
• Most tank liners failed when inspected
• Options are to inspect and repair liners or
  evaluate tank integrity and install corrosion
  protection
• LDEQ was requested to consider an alternative
  tank integrity evaluation method similar to what
  is allowed in Mississippi Texas

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Lined Tanks Decision

• LDEQ contacted EPA to discuss federal position
  EPA deferred to State
• LDEQ researched available methods and industry
  status and evaluated costs
• LDEQ discussed with LOMCSA members
• LDEQ brought before the MFUSTTF Advisory Board
  for input
• LDEQ reached decision to allow an alternative
  assessment method using tank tightness testing
  provided that certain requirements were met.

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Louisiana Alternative Assessment Procedure

• Tank Tightness Test prior to addition of IC
  system
• Tank Tightness Test 3 to 6 months after addition
  of IC system
• Annual Tank Tightness Testing thereafter (can use
  ATG or SIR for the annual tests if 0.1gph leak
  rate at correct product level)
• Monthly release detection other than Inventory
  Control or Manual Tank Gauging
• Facilities that installed IC systems without
  performing integrity assessments can use LAAP by
  performing TTT immediately, then annually
  thereafter

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Lined Tanks Considerations for Owners

• Compatibility with alternative fuels
• Cost to perform testing and install impressed
  current at low throughput facilities
• Planned life of facility
• Cost of closure and deductible if release
  discovered
• Potential liability if a catastrophic leak
  occurs.

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Motor Fuel Delivery Certificates

• Meeting held with LOMSCA Members to discuss
  issues
• Changing market conditions
• Brokers attempting to obtain certificates
• Audit issues
• Make certain everyone being treated equally
• Additional discussions to be held.

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LDEQ Abandoned Tank Program

• Interest from trust fund used to address
  abandoned properties
• Financially unable to pay must provide
  financial information
• When work completed, lien placed on property
• Work done through contracting
• Funding available ramping program up.

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LDEQ Post-Hurricane Assessments

• EPA provided approximately 12 million to
  evaluate and clean up releases that may have been
  caused by the Hurricanes
• No tank removals or repairs allowed
• Two contracts have been awarded
• Site Assessment
• RECAP/CAP development
• Additional contracts for Corrective Action
• Will reduce impact on Trust Fund.

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Alternative Fuels

• Ethanol Blends (E10, E85), Biodiesel
• 2 E85 sites in Louisiana (Sulphur BR)
• Additional E85 sites in Baton Rouge soon
• DEQ Website (UST Division, Other Helpful Links)
• Alternative fuel information
• Conversion documents

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Alternative Fuels

• Documented problems
• Equipment compatibility (LAC 33XI.505)
• Check all equipment for compatibility
• Phase separation
• 0.35 water can cause ethanol to drop out
• Water tight UST system
• Monitor for water regularly
• Accelerated corrosion and conductivity

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UST Air Issues

• National Emissions Standards for Hazardous
  Pollutants Federal Requirement
• Ozone non-attainment
• Stage 2 Vapor Recovery to be determined based
  on Ozone non-attainment and SIP
• Stage 2 Exemption Rule E85 facilities, new car
  rental facilities and new car manufacturing
  facilities
• Vapor freeing issues ozone non attainment
• See new Frequently Asked Questions on USTD
  website!

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New Federal Regulations

• EPA will be developing new regulations
• Will address Energy Act components as well as
  cleanup of old regulations that were written in
  1988
• We have been told that EPA will defer to state
  regulations for states with federal delegation
• New regulations are being primarily developed for
  tribal lands and states without federal
  delegation.

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New Federal Regulations

• These regulations would provide EPA with red tag
  authority in our state
• Regulations being developed using standard
  federal process
• EPA has been meeting with various groups to begin
  process
• We plan to be involved in federal rulemaking.

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Other EPA UST Initiatives

• More aggressive cleanups incident backlog
  project
• Petroleum Brownfields abandoned site cleanup
• Financial assurance more scrutiny of state fund
  soundness
• Alternative Fuels compatibility issues

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Path Forward
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DEQ in 2008-2009Focus Areas 10 Point Plan

• 1. Ethics and Integrity
• 2. Transparency
• 3. Level Playing Field
• 4. Front-Loading
• 5. Regionalization
• 6. Investment in Employees
• 7. Investment in Community Organizations and
  Local Governments
• 8. Investment in Small Businesses
• 9. Investment in Green Government and Applied
  Research
• 10. Investment in Technology and eBusiness

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USTD 08-09 Initiatives

• Expand outreach - E-newsletters
• Online forms and payments
• Inspection Computerization
• Certified worker program improvements
• Expand abandoned tank program
• Increase involvement of MFUSTTF Board

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USTD 08-09 Initiatives

• Finalize Secondary Containment regs
• Initiate Operator Training rulemaking
• Initiate clean up of state regs
• Revise closure guidance document
• Incorporate PFP principles and expand PFP
  program
• Participate in federal rulemaking effort.

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ENERGY ACT
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ENERGY ACT

• Financial Responsibility or Secondary
  Containment
• Delivery Prohibition
• Inspections
• State Compliance Report
• Public Record and,
• Operator Training.

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Energy Act

• Secondary Containment
• Energy Act Work Group developed proposed rule
• Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published
  in 2007 no comment
• Minor changes made to address concerns brought
  out in later work group meeting
• Proposed rule published June 20, 2008, Public
  Hearing July 29, 2008, Comment Deadline August 5,
  2008, Scheduled to go final December 20, 2008.

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Secondary Containment

• Tanks installed after 12/20/08
• Secondarily-contained (double-walled, jacketed,
  etc.) and interstitial monitoring

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Secondary Containment

• Secondarily-contained piping with interstitial
  monitoring required

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Energy Act

• Delivery Prohibition
• Tanks ineligible for delivery if spill
  prevention, overfill protection, leak detection
  or corrosion protection equipment is not
  installed and,
• Ineligible for delivery if written warning for
  improper operation of above and fail to comply.

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Energy Act

• Delivery Prohibition
• EPA Deadline August 8, 2007
• LDEQ Status
• Rule Proposed 6/20/07
• Public Hearing 7/25/07
• Rule Final 10/20/07
• Implementation began 4/15/08

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Energy Act

• Delivery Prohibition
• Red tags only placed on during inspection when
  verified and authorization given by USTD
  management
• Contractors not allowed to red tag during
  inspections, LDEQ supervisors will red tag
  contractor sites if violations still present
• Notice provided to distributers via blast fax,
  email and internet site.

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Energy Act

• Delivery Prohibition
• Most common problem for immediate red tag no
  release detection
• Contractor findings are being corrected by owners
  prior to DEQ staff arriving to red tag
• Two sites red tagged by DEQ staff but expect more
  to come due to inspection schedule and 30 day
  notices being sent out.

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Delivery ProhibitionRed Tags
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UST Compliance Act August 8, 2007 Inspection
Deadline

• June 20, 2006-August 8, 2007 UST Inspections
• LDEQ Staff 457 CEIs
• EPA Contractors 913 CEIs
• DEQ Contractors 314 CEIs
• Total 1684 CEIs

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Energy Act

• Inspections
• Must inspect every site once every three years
  with a one year extension possible for the first
  3 year cycle
• Current UST active site universe 4500 sites
• 3 year cycle 1500 inspections per year
• Year 1 1200 inspections by LDEQ and
  contractor, EPA planning to perform 300
• Trying to increase number of inspections so EPA
  contractors not needed --- dependent on
  contractor cost

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Energy Act

• State Compliance Report
• Report must include
• Location of each government owned tank
• Date of last inspection of each non-compliant
  tank
• Actions taken to ensure compliance and,
• Basis for compliance determination.
• LDEQ will update report to EPA

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Energy Act

• Public Record
• Must include the number, sources, and causes of
  underground storage tank releases
• The record of compliance
• The number of equipment failures
• Must be available for the public in paper and
  electronic format.

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Energy Act

• Public Record
• EPA Deadline First Report due December 2008
  Begin gathering data October 1, 2007.
• LDEQ Status New form developed for release
  reporting Data being gathered QA/QC ongoing.

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Energy Act

• Operator Training
• Training for 3 classes of operators
• Persons primarily responsible for operation of
  UST system (Class A)
• Persons having daily on-site responsibility for
  UST systems (Class B) and,
• Daily on-site employees having responsibility for
  emergencies caused by a spill or release (Class
  C) (Can be trained by an A or B Operator).

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Energy Act

• Operator Training
• EPA Deadline Program developed by August 2009
  all workers trained by August 2012
• LDEQ Status Program development stage Energy
  Act Work Group meeting to develop rules

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ENERGY ACT

• Operator Training Options
• 3rd party training and testing
• LDEQ training and testing
• Web-based training and testing
• Reciprocal training with adjacent states
• Facility specific training

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Trust Fund
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MFUST TF Funding Sources

• TWO SOURCES
• .8 cent per gallon fee that is remitted to the
  Department by wholesale distributors
• ( 21 million per year)
• Twelve distributors are audited randomly by DEQ
  Internal Audit per year (out of 345)
• 275 per year new and used oil tanks
• (25,000/year)

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Claims Paid per Fiscal Year (Revenue is constant
20- 22 Million)

• FY Claims Claims Paid
• 2002 2011 25,333,94
• 2003 2240 23,321,322
• 2004 2178 19,953,818
• 2005 2217 18,282,085
• 2006 2214 16,718,257
• 2007 2503 16,391,867
• 2008 2600 17,000,000 (PROJ.)

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MFUSTTF Reimbursement

• Unit cost for all activities up to the
  implementation of a CAP (Corrective Action Plan).
• CAP Activities are at Time Materials with bids
  required for anything over 10,000.00
• Average cost to complete site that requires
  remediation is 700,000.00.

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Reimbursement Backlog

• Response Action Contractors (RACs) are allowed to
  submit claims quarterly.
• In 2003, there was a four month backlog.
• The current backlog is 14 days.

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MFUSTTF

• 2003 - Trust Fund was paying to clean up 450
  sites while collecting 20 - 22 million per year
• 2008 - Trust Fund is paying to clean up 700
  sites while still collecting the SAME 20 - 22
  million per year.

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MFUSTTF Other Expenses

• DEQ UST activities cost about 3 million to 4
  million per year.
• DEQ collects roughly 700,000 from UST
  registrations and roughly another 1 million from
  the EPA grants
• By law, the balance of the costs of LDEQ UST
  oversight (1.3 - 2.3 million) comes out of the
  UST Trust Fund.

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Fund Soundness

• Cost to clean up all sites currently in
  Corrective Action Plan (CAP) phase is 46 million
  (this is over the next 4 to 6 years)
• Balance before encumbrances in Fund currently is
  22.5 million, plus in the next 4 years, we will
  collect 80 million more in fees.
• Current balance minus anticipated costs for the
  next four years is a negative 23.5 million,
  however, even this balance is improving by 2
  million to 3 million per year.
• 3 month audit each year no findings!

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MFUSTTF Advisory Board

• Plan to expand advisory role of board
• Bring important issues before the board to make
  certain all sides are heard before decisions are
  made
• Use the board as a sounding board for ideas or
  ways to improve the program.

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REMEDIATION OVERSIGHT GROUP (ROG)

• UST Division, Engineering, Toxicology, Trust Fund
  personnel
• Review remediation plans
• To ensure cleanup is required
• To ensure correct clean up levels are applied
• To ensure use of appropriate technology
• To identify quickly if the technology doesnt
  work as planned (approve 2 years funding at a
  time)
• To ensure the most Bang for the Buck

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Remediation Oversight Group (ROG)

• Ensures cost effective expenditures and preserves
  money remaining in balance to clean up site
• Ensures viability of trust fund as a financial
  assurance mechanism for owners
• No longer a backlog for meetings, scheduled as
  soon as CAP received

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Remediation Oversight Group (ROG)

• Meetings held with ROG, RACs and Owners to
  discuss CAP and budget
• Participation in person at HQ or regional office
  or via conference call
• OWNERs strongly encouraged to participate

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Pay For Performance
Common Sense For Cleanups
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Pay For Performance

• Time Materials Approach
• Traditionally, UST releases have been reimbursed
  on a pre-approved Time Materials approach
• The RAC performs a task and submits a claim for
  MFTF reimbursement for the time, equipment, and
  materials required to complete the task
  regardless of the environmental results

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Pay For Performance

• Time Materials Problems
• Paying for time, materials, or services instead
  of environmental results
• Too much paperwork
• Too little focus on remediation
• Projects are too costly and take too long to close

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Pay For Performance

• Pay For Performance Approach
• Pay For Performance is an alternative approach to
  reimbursing a RAC for corrective action
• Agreement between owner/operator RAC that sets
  a fixed price and timeframe for remediation
• LDEQ signs the agreement to encumber the
  necessary funds

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Pay For Performance

• Key Components of PFP
• Firm, fixed price for remediation
• Specified timeframe for remediation
• Established remedial goals
• Contamination-reduction payments based on
  achieving milestones
• Can be used on new releases or existing time
  material releases
• Escape clauses

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PFP Principles Being Considered for Time
Materials Program

• Revise ground water monitoring guidelines
• Tiered site investigations
• Run time on systems used to determine amount paid
  for OM
• Changing the way payments are made on reports
• Deductions for late submittals.

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Cost Efficient and Expedient Site Closure

• Why is it important to you?
• You are responsible for any costs over the 1
  million allowed
• The fund is your financial assurance if fund is
  not financially sound insurance required
• 3rd Party Liability
• Allows you to sell your property when an offer is
  made instead of having to wait for cleanup to be
  completed.

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LDEQ USTDContact Information

• Address P.O. Box 4314
• Baton Rouge, LA 70821
• Phone [phone]
• FAX [phone]
• Web http//www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/tabid/265
  9/Default.aspx