PETROLEUM UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANK (UST) CLEANUP FUND UPDATE: SB 445 SIGNED INTO LAW

On September 25, 2014, Governor Brown signed Senate Bill 445, which immediately became law (Chapter 547, Statutes of 2014).

Some of the high points of the new law include:

• An extension of the program sunset date by 10 years to January 1, 2026
  
• An increase in fees assessed on petroleum stored in underground storage tanks
  
• A requirement that all single-walled USTs be permanently closed by December 31, 2015,
  
• Dedicated money from the fees assessed to investigate and clean up sites without viable responsible parties (sometimes referred to as Orphan Sites) and to reimburse school districts for UST cleanups,
  
• Providing the State Water Board with the necessary authority to address fraud in the cleanup fund
  
• Limiting the cap to $1 million for claims, EAR account sites, Orphan Site Cleanup Fund sites that are submitted to the Water Board after December 31, 2014,
  
• Increasing the Regulatory Technical Assistance (RTAC) cap to $,5000 for certain costs incurred after September 25, 2014
  
• Increasing the amount of RUST (Replacing, Removing, or Upgrading Underground Storage Tanks) grants to $70,000
  
• A new SB 445 webpage is available at HERE .
  

Please feel free to contact Mike Cassidy, Vice President of Site Assessment and Remediation at Alta for any questions you may have regarding these developments. Alta has UST Cleanup Fund experts with decades of experience on staff to help you take advantage of this new law.

Mike can be reached at Mike.Cassidy@altaenviron.com or 714.532.5777 .