Gasoline marketers are predicting tank reform legislation may pass Congress, perhaps this year.
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) has reintroduced legislation first proposed last session that requires all underground storage tanks to be inspected every 2 years. The bill, S. 195, gives state or federal regulators power to keep product out of tanks that do not meet safety standards.
The proposal has bipartisan support, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee considers it a top priority, marketers and congressional sources say.
Industry supports the measure. Fuel suppliers want final legislation to include a provision allowing states to use money from the federal Leaking Underground Storage Trust (LUST) fund to "backstop" state tank cleanup budgets. Suppliers also want—but may not get—a provision that uses federal money to reimburse some industry cleanup costs.
Today's problems
Today's federal underground storage tank program faces compliance and cleanup problems, the US Environmental Protection Agency said recently.
"One of the biggest challenges we face is that the number of cleanups completed dropped 28% this year (fiscal year 2002). This downward trend began 3 years ago, leaving us with a national cleanup backlog of 143,000 releases remaining to be cleaned up," EPA said in a report to regional regulators.
But the news isn't completely bad.
Improved leak detection and prevention measures translated into a 54% drop in the number of reported new releases. EPA also is working with states to standardize compliance data so regulators can better track the 698,000 active tanks nationwide.
Conforming federal and state data may help save the cash-starved program for another year or two. But with state fiscal pressures deepening, local regulators are growing more insistent that EPA expand its role.
Congress and courts
Last session, lawmakers failed to reach agreement on LUST cleanup funding. A pending proposal for the overdue FY 2003 gives the fund $72 million, the same amount as FY 2002. Local regulators and environmental groups say that figure isn't enough, but they may not be able to convince Congress.
Senate Democratic leaders last year unsuccessfully sought to reinstate an industry tax that expired in 1995 that paid for federal cleanups of toxic waste sites. The White House currently does not support the tax, although EPA says the fund will dwindle to $28 million by Sept. 30 unless new money is found. Last year's energy bill allocated money specifically for contamination caused by methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE); this year, the Chafee legislation authorizes $200 million for MTBE remediation.
Meanwhile, an appellate court recently ruled against industry when it expanded the power of landowners to sue over alleged contamination. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit said cleanup plans are allowed to start before a tank owner conducts his own investigation. Landowners may also sue neighbors if they suspect nearby toxic wastes contaminated their own property. Appeals are pending.