Jump to main content.

State Innovation Grants

EPA 2005-2006 State Innovation Grants Competition Pre-Proposals

Project Title and Location: Environmental Results Program (ERP) Initiative for the VA Underground Storage Tank (UST) Inspection Program – Virginia Department of Environmental Quality - Richmond, Virginia

Name of Applicant Agency: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

Name of Project Contact:
Contact Person: Russell P. Ellison III, P.G., CGWP, MBA
UST Program Coordinator
Office of Spill Response & Remediation 
Virginia Department of Environmental Quality
629 E. Main Street
P.O. Box 10009
Richmond, Virginia  23240
Telephone: (804) 698-4269
Fax: (804) 698-4266
E-mail: rpellison@deq.virginia.gov

This project would be executed in cooperation with the federal and delegated state UST/LUST Programs. No regulatory flexibility from the federal government is anticipated to be needed to implement the project. The Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality endorses this project.

Pre-Proposal Project Narrative

This project would bring next-generation strategic innovation and extensive application to what is arguably the largest environmental regulatory program in Virginia and the nation—the UST/LUST Program. Virginia has the seventh largest active UST population in the nation with some 27,000 USTs at over 9,000 UST facilities and with limited state resources achieves a current inspection rate of only every 9 years. More than 10,181 UST releases have been reported to date in Virginia alone. Although in recent years the release rate has significantly decreased, releases continue to occur primarily related to facility non-compliance and operational issues. A significant volume reduction in contaminants to the environment is expected from increasing facility operational compliance rates. A successful interactive CD-ROM/online self-certification ERP program for UST Inspections in such a large UST population state would be the next logical step in effecting increased UST stewardship, program efficiency, pollution prevention, and environmental protection, that could then easily be rolled out to other states nationwide.

This project will work directly to achieve several of EPA’s 2003-2008 stated Strategic Goals: Clean and Safe Water (Goal #2 ) - Reducing Exposure to Contaminants in Drinking Water (including protecting source waters) by further protecting public and private drinking water supplies and the ground and surface water resources by correcting UST containment, compliance, and operational problems more frequently thus limiting impacts especially from the known carcinogen benzene and the contaminant MTBE; Land Preservation and Restoration (Goal #3) by better preventing the occurrence and limiting the extent of releases and their associated long term impacts to lands; Healthy Communities and Ecosystems (Goal #4) by further reducing petroleum releases to soil, water, and air and thus further protecting human health and the environment; and, Compliance and Environmental Stewardship (Goal #5) by more frequently fostering UST owner stewardship and in so doing achieve better overall UST knowledge and compliance. The Clean Air component of Strategic Goal #1 - Healthier Outdoor Air via reduction in VOCs and the toxic carcinogen (benzene) will also be met as air emissions from UST releases will be diminished. And overall, the Cross-Goal Strategy of Innovation will be achieved with this innovative stewardship project.

In the past 18 years VA-DEQ has received approximately $187,000 per year in EPA UST base grant funds to maintain an UST program presence throughout this federally delegated program state. In addition, the Virginia Petroleum Storage Tank Fund currently contributes over $1.8 million in state funds annually specifically for this UST inspection effort. Combined, these federal and state funds support a staff of some 22 inspectors statewide in the seven DEQ regional offices who annually perform approximately 1,000 full formal UST facility inspections and 400 informal and site visit facility inspections and all follow-up activities. At current staffing and inspection rates, each Virginia UST facility would be formally inspected only approximately every 9 years—a too infrequent rate. This very low frequency will hopefully improve somewhat with inspection staff efficiencies achieved over time and the resolution of the many older UST sites, but nationwide a low inspection frequency as noted in the federal May 2001 GAO Report (GAO-01-464 entitled “Improved Inspections and Enforcement Would Better Ensure the Safety of Underground Storage Tanks”) remains a long-term obstacle in the effort to diminish and help prevent UST releases.

The UST Program began on November 8, 1984 when Subtitle I of RCRA was signed into law to prevent the release of regulated substances affecting human health and the environment. Since the passing of the 1998 UST Upgrading deadline some 14 years later, EPA and the states have continued to struggle with increasing the inspection frequency rates and ensuring consistent inspections in order that the proper balance of increased regulatory compliance and environmental protection is achieved and maintained. On September 30, 2003 EPA's Significant Operational Compliance (SOC) guidelines for USTs were adopted nationwide as a good benchmark standard of consistency for all future state and federal UST inspections and reporting compliance rates to EPA.

Current SOC compliance rates for the nation average in the 65%-70% range with some smaller and/or adequately funded states claiming 90% compliance rates and other often larger states with limited funding and/or staffing reporting in the 40%-50% compliance range. Reported compliance rates are dependent on a number of variables such as: frequency of inspections (influenced by tank population of the state and available resources); flexibility and experience of the state inspector(s); training levels of the UST owners; status of the state inspection process (first time inspections, etc.); percentage of tanks upgraded with cathodic protection; the used oil tank population (chronically non-compliant); and, focus of state program efforts on known problem owners/sites.

Based on the aforementioned May 2001 GAO report (GAO-01-464) and proposed federal energy legislation, a national initiative is underway to urge states to increase their inspection frequencies to every two to three years--a significant and costly undertaking. The GAO research indicates that tank owners are more likely to be in consistent compliance if they are kept aware of the UST requirements on a more frequent basis (2-3 years). Unfortunately this effort comes at a time when state budgets have been cut and there is a national business trend for major oil companies to divest their stations to independent dealers and thus the past economies-of-scale for compliance under major-brand oil entities is somewhat being lost. Also, the GAO report identified that more frequent and continuing operator training is needed. Although the main effort of this proposed project is to increase compliance rates, an added benefit is that more owner/operator training is achieved.

The main goal of this proposed project is to develop an electronic interactive ERP Self-Certification Program for UST Inspections. This effort would initially involve an EPA and State funded pilot project to enable selected competent major UST owners/operators or their qualified contractors to use a CD-ROM/online electronic version of the EPA "UST ERP Workbook" (EPA 510-R-04-003) and a more simplified "EPA UST ERP Checklist" to self-certify compliance. Many of the noted difficulties of gaining tank owner understanding of the comprehensive 162-page UST Workbook and Checklist may be overcome using such a CD-ROM/ online question and answer approach. Such an electronic inspection/compliance tool would need to be tailored for both CD-ROM and on-line interactive use similar to desktop and on-line web-based "tax preparation software" services. A DEQ/EPA-approved software contractor would refine the UST ERP Workbook and Checklist and develop the CD-ROM and on-line interactive versions. The project development and rollout period is expected to take 18 months. After completing an interactive CD-ROM/online session the UST owner would generate a DEQ UST ERP Inspection Checklist form to certify UST compliance under Virginia Law and Regulation (which is very similar to the federal). Initially, only owners of large numbers of USTs (major oils or owners with >~100 facilities) with sufficient competent oversight resources and with proven records of compliance will be selected for the pilot program in order to focus on owners with the greatest likelihood of successful program participation. Allowing a significant percentage of UST facilities to ERP self-certify would free up limited DEQ UST inspection staff to concentrate on mom-and-pop facilities and those entities most in need of compliance assistance. Third party certification is expected to become an inherent part of this ERP effort since some major tank owners will prefer to hire third party contractors to conduct their certifications much like tax preparation contractors provide tax filing services. DEQ Regional Office UST inspection staff would audit up to 10% of all self-certifications to ensure accuracy and take follow-up enforcement action where necessary. Ongoing outreach by DEQ UST staff to associations and stakeholder groups would be integral and critical to the program's ultimate success therefore VA-DEQ UST Program staff would initiate and maintain contact with the key stakeholders to gain consensus on the best ways to roll out the program to all potential self-certifying entities. These include the Virginia Petroleum Council (major oil), Virginia Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association (jobbers), and the Virginia Gasoline Marketers Council (independents) and include large public entities such as VDOT.

In accordance with EPA Order 5700.7 the following plan is offered for measuring and tracking progress in achieving expected outputs/outcomes:

August 2005 – EPA Grant Awarded – Initially, a pilot (VA) project to enable up to 100 selected competent major UST owners/operators or their qualified contractors to use a CD-ROM/online electronic version of the EPA "UST ERP Workbook" and a more simplified "EPA UST ERP Checklist" to self-certify compliance. This electronic inspection/compliance tool would need to be tailored for both CD-ROM and on-line interactive use similar to desktop and on-line web-based "tax preparation software" services in common use by the public today.

September 2005 - A Request for Proposals (RFP) will be issued in search for a suitable CD-ROM/online version development contractor. EPA-OUST will be requested as a minimum to participate in a technical oversight role and ideally to collaborate with the contractor/staff in an effort to produce the most nationally adaptable/suitable final product. In-kind review support from VA-DEQ in the form of DEQ UST program software staff and UST technical/inspection personnel will be provided to assist and guide the contractor. The proposed RFP scope of work will be focused enough to limit change orders and other variables thereby containing costs. They are familiar with the UST Program terms and requirements and could leverage existing knowledge and skills to quickly ramp up this CD-ROM/online ERP effort. EPA-OUST may consider partnering with EPA Innovations on this effort to provide a self-certification template for all the states to use.

December 2005 – Contractor retained for UST ERP Inspection software CD-ROM/online version development. Contract will require use of EPA UST ERP Workbook as a template for the logic sequence for the question and answer process. A regulated community workgroup will be asked for input during the process. This will greatly limit the over 100 pages of Workbook documents still necessary under current availability. An EPA UST ERP Checklist to self-certify compliance will be generated for electronic and paper copy submission to DEQ and for owner recordation.

June 2006 – A Beta version of the EPA UST ERP Inspection software will be provided in CD-ROM/online format for VA trials with DEQ inspection staff, EPA officials, and then to several of the selected major UST owners/operators.

September 2006 – Final version is provided as CD-ROM/online. Field auditing is undertaken by in-kind support DEQ staff inspectors of up to 10% of the selected UST entities who CD-ROM/online self-certified. Initially, environmental outcomes will be measured based on the noted reduction in UST release reports, compliance rate analysis, and projected extent of any reported releases from active UST facilities statewide during the project period as compared to current release reporting extent conditions (baseline).

December 2006 – Review of initial audit results initiated. Fine tuning of final CD-ROM/online version begun in anticipation of broader application to additional owner categories statewide. EPA/other states will have free access to the VA CD-ROM/online version for their uses and modifications per their state regulatory needs.

June 2007 – Final reporting to EPA of results and outcomes. Outcome comparisons will focus on active UST facilities self-certifying every third year versus the normal 9 year (baseline) frequency of inspection in VA. Air (toxics), water, and land impact reductions of the more frequently inspected (CD-ROM/online self-certified) UST facilities will be evaluated and reported.

Federal Form SF-424A will be submitted with any final application package.

Principal Project Expected Results:

Project and team synergies with other Region III state partner agency’s inspection efforts:

Applicability to other states and EPA:

One contracting option would be to explore the possibility of EPA agreeing to partner with the state(s) to use any ERP cooperative agreement funds toward retaining existing EPA-OUST contractors who developed the online EPA UST Inspector Training module. They are familiar with the UST Program terms and requirements and could leverage existing knowledge and skills to quickly ramp up this CD-ROM/online ERP effort. EPA-OUST may consider partnering with EPA Innovations on this effort to provide a self-certification template for all states to use.

Budget Summary

State: Virginia
Agency: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
Project Title: Environmental Results Program (ERP) Initiative for the VA Underground Storage Tank (UST) Inspection Program

[Budgetary information removed by EPA]

Local Navigation

Jump to main content.