Underground Storage Tank - Reporting Regulations

Information on the Proposed Amendments of Chapter 16 of Divison 3 of Title 23 of the California Code of Regulations for Reporting

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New Underground Storage Tank Forms Required on and After October 1, 2020

Microsoft Word Form Version

• Monitoring System Certification Form
• Secondary Containment Testing Report Form
• Spill Containment Testing Report Form
• Overfill Prevention Equipment Inspection Form
• Designated UST Operator Identification Form
• Designated UST Operator Visual Inspection Form

Adobe Acrobat Form Version

• Monitoring System Certification Form
• Secondary Containment Testing Report Form
• Spill Containment Testing Report Form
• Overfill Prevention Equipment Inspection Form
• Designated UST Operator Identification Form
• Designated UST Operator Visual Inspection Form

Guidance Documents on the New Reporting Requirements

• Monitoring System Certification
• Secondary Containment Testing Report
• Spill Containment Testing Report
• Overfill Prevention Equipment Inspection
• UST Compliance Inspection Reporting
• Designated UST Operator Inspection (update)

Core Documents

• T23 Final Statement of Reasons
• T23 Reporting Final Text of Adopted Regulations
• T23 Modified Proposed Amendments
• T23 Notice of Modification and Opportunity to Comment
• T23 Reporting Public Notice
• T23 Reporting Proposed Amendments
• T23 Reporting Initial Statement of Reasons (ISOR)
• T23 Reporting Preliminary Economic and Fiscal Impact Statement (Std. Form 399)

Key Provisions of Regulation

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) has amended California Code of Regulations, title 23, division 3, chapter 16 (California Underground Storage Tank (UST) Regulations).  These amendments include both modifications to the local agency reporting requirements and modifications to the reporting requirements for UST owners and operators.  The effective date of these amendments is October 1, 2020.

Background

The State Water Board has amended the requirements in California UST Regulations, section 2713 regarding the data that local agencies must provide semi-annually to the State Water Board.  The UST performance measures that the State Water Board reports to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) under the Federal Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Corrective Action Cooperation Agreement for California and the State Water Board Cooperative Agreement Work Plan (federal UST performance measures) were amended and are known at the Technical Compliance Rate.  In addition to these federal UST performance measures, the State Water Board must report compliance inspection data to the U.S. EPA pursuant to the Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Additionally, the State Water Board included to section 2713 requirements that local agencies provide annual compliance inspection data using the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS), the statewide web-based system used to collect and report hazardous material related data.  Finally, the State Water Board simplified the existing local agency reporting requirement regarding red tags.  These amendments to the local agency UST performance measures were necessary so that the State Water Board can provide complete and accurate reporting of all federal UST performance measures to the U.S. EPA.

The State Water Board also amended the requirements in California UST Regulations, section 2716 to clarify UST owners and operators designated UST operator visual inspection responsibilities.  This amendment requires the UST Owner or Operator to sign the designated operator visual inspection report within 72 hours of receipt, acknowledging the inspection results on the “Designated Underground Storage Tank Operator Visual Inspection Report.”

The State Water Board substantially modified several of the forms in regulation.  The communication testing requirement has been removed from the Monitoring System Certification Form and the Secondary Containment Testing Report Form.  Structural changes to the forms were added to simplify use by the UST owners, operators, and the local agencies and constructed to be accessible for all users.

Public Comment Period

The 45-day written comment period closed on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 at 12:00 p.m.  The State Water Board considered comments received and proposed a modified set of amendment based on the comments received.  The State Water Board published and distributed a Notice of Modification to Text of Proposed Regulation and the modified text of the proposed regulations in underline and strikeout on April 20, 2020.  The 15-day public comment period on the proposed modifications closed on May 6, 2020.  The modified proposed regulations are shown as blue double underline and strikethrough, insertions shown as double underline and deletions shown as double strikethrough.  The State Water Resources Control Board approved the amendments at the May 19, 2020 Board Meeting.  On August 27, 2020, the Office of Administrative Law approved the amendments to the California UST Regulations and filed the amendments with the Secretary of State.

All comments were processed through Ms. Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board, by email at commentletters@waterboards.ca.gov, fax at (916) 341-5620, or mail or hand delivery to:

Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board
State Water Resources Control Board
P.O. Box 100, Sacramento, CA 95812-2000 (by mail)
1001 "I" St, 24th Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814 (by hand delivery)

Contact Information

Requests for copies of the text of the regulations, the statement of reasons, or other information upon which the rulemaking was based, or other inquiries should be addressed to the following:

Laura S. Fisher, Manager
State Water Resources Control Board 
Division of Water Quality 
1001 "I" Street 
Sacramento, CA 95814 
(916) 341-5870
Laura.Fisher@waterboards.ca.gov

The backup contact person is:

Tom Henderson 
State Water Resources Control Board 
Division of Water Quality 
1001 "I" Street 
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 319-9128
Tom.Henderson@waterboards.ca.gov