EMA Journal • PMAA Journal Fall 2018 • PMAA Today

PMAA would like to thank Washington Conference and Day on the Hill attendees for highlighting PMAA’s UST compliance cost concerns in May. While we were able to attract a bipartisan congressional letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), unfortunately, lawmakers who requested that the EPA extend the compliance deadline for the testing of sumps, spill buckets and overfill prevention devices until October 2024 received word from the EPA that their request was respectfully denied. The good news is that while the EPA won’t extend the compliance deadline, the agency has agreed to delay its enforcement in the event there is a shortage of contractors or equipment. The EPA said enforcement discretion would be given to those tank owners showing a “good faith effort” to comply by the deadline but are unable due to equipment or contractor shortage. Evidence of a good faith effort would be having a contract for compliance work in place by the October 13, 2018, deadline. It is important to understand that the October 13, 2018, deadline only applies in some states. Most states adopted a compliance deadline after October 13, 2018. The EPA’s UST regulations allow states to adopt the October 13, 2018, federal compliance deadline or establish their own deadline any time thereafter, but no later than October 13, 2021.

Though the UST deadline wasn’t extended, that doesn’t mean the fight is over. PMAA will continue to work with the EPA and industry standard groups to develop guidance that offers additional compliance flexibility to states that choose to adopt them. Keep in mind that the EPA’s Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) issued guidance for alternative low-level hydrostatic testing for UST containment sumps used as secondary containment for piping that PMAA pushed earlier this year. The guidance helps state UST program regulators implement the EPA’s 2015 underground storage tank regulatory amendments requiring periodic testing and inspection. PMAA developed this test as an inexpensive alternative to the EPA’s hydrostatic test method for containment sumps, which requires costly high-level liquid testing. Publication of the EPA guidance is important because it clears the way for PMAA’s alternative test method to be approved for use by state UST program regulators.

The PMAA alternative test method eliminates the need to fill containment sumps with water to within 4 inches above the highest penetration point in the sump wall to test for integrity, as required under the EPA-approved test method. Instead, PMAA’s alternative test method only requires filling the sump to a level sufficient to activate an alarm/shutdown sensor mounted below penetration points in the sump wall. Integrity testing containment sumps in this way saves tank owners thousands of dollars in test preparation and compliance costs necessary to make penetration points liquid-tight under the EPA test procedure. The PMAA alternative test method also significantly lowers hazardous wastewater disposal costs by reducing the volume of water required for testing by more than two-thirds. For more information on the UST sump test procedure, please go to www.pmaa.org/advocacy/regulatory-issues.

Meanwhile, PMAA remains concerned with utilities using their rate base to pay for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure expansion. This practice allows utilities an unfair competitive advantage over marketers and others who must economically justify at-risk investments in new equipment, such as EV charging stations. Turn to page 20 to read more about this important issue.