Fuel tank control sought

BOISE – Oversight of Idaho’s 1,300 federally regulated and sometimes-leaky fuel storage tanks would fall partially into state hands under legislation introduced Thursday.

Federal and state environmental officials say creating state rules for the tanks and giving the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality inspection power will help prevent leaks, saving taxpayer money on cleanup down the road.

While lawmakers agree that giving the DEQ regulatory authority would assist small business owners in navigating a maze of federal requirements, some want to make sure the new regulations won’t harm mom-and-pop businesses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspects tanks for compliance with a 2005 federal law that imposed tougher standards for tanks near underground drinking water supplies. But federal inspectors are short-staffed, leading the agency to bring in out-of-state inspectors for operations that often find owners in violation of federal standards.

Idaho has 160 leaky tanks, and each cost an average of $225,000 to clean up last year, Joe Nagel of the DEQ told the House Environment, Energy and Technology Committee on Thursday.

Idaho is the only state that does not have its own rules governing underground tanks. If Idaho does not develop a prevention plan, federal cleanup grants totaling about $750,000 a year may disappear, Nagel said.

The House committee rejected a proposal to start a state prevention program in 2002 at the urging of Rep Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, who still sits on the committee.

The latest proposal would require new and replacement tanks and connected piping within 1,000 feet of drinking water systems to be double-walled to help prevent leaks.

Federal law says tank owners can use double-walled tanks or work with installers who carry liability insurance in case of a leak. But state and federal officials differ as to who should make that choice – the state or the business. The proposed bill says owners should use double-walled tanks, but some owners believe insurance is more affordable, Nagel said.

Nagel said fully retrofitting a tank system costs about $18,000.

“That, I think, will be the biggest financial impact on all the owners and operators in the state,” he said.

Many owners already should have upgraded, said Forde Johnson, chairman of the state’s Petroleum Storage Tank Fund and an Idaho Falls fuel distributor.

Most underground tanks belong to small businesses, Nagel said, and about six in 10 are at gas stations.

The DEQ held nine meetings last summer, including one in Sandpoint, on the potential effects of state tank rules. Most of the 300 people who attended preferred that the state take the lead, Nagel said.

Fuel distribution industry representatives agreed.

“There is concern about it, but we’re closer to agreeing that something can be worked out this year than we’ve been in the past,” Johnson said. “It looks to us as though DEQ and the state will be able to handle a lot of these issues perhaps better than the feds.”

He said DEQ staff will be closer to and better able to inspect facilities and that the EPA has become “very difficult to work with.”

Erik Sirs, the EPA’s state enforcement coordinator for underground tanks, said federal inspections generally show compliance with the more stringent federal law is improving, but “it’s still not up to the level that we’d like to see.”

Inspection of 57 sites in the Boise area in July resulted in 13 warnings and 16 citations. Fifty-eight percent of those facilities met requirements

In October, 39 inspections in southeast Idaho led to 13 warnings and 17 field citations totaling about $6,000 in fines.

While the EPA won’t relinquish its inspection role right away, Sirs said, Idaho may eventually apply for full state control of its tanks.

Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover, said the law would give individuals a bigger role in preventing leaks.

“To me, I think that’s going to be a benefit,” he said.

Implementing the DEQ program will require four full-time positions, two of which would be pulled from existing staff. The others would be funded by $200,000 a year in federal grants.