Underground storage tank agency map

How the map reads a state

Underground storage tanks, or USTs, answer to a state agency in most states. Under 40 CFR Part 282, an approved state program operates in lieu of the federal one ^[1]. EPA keeps the list of states with approved UST programs and the Federal Register notice behind each approval ^[1]. The map shades a state when our research verified the agency that runs its program from the agency's own page or rule, and the title of the state names the agency as that page names it. Texas reads TCEQ PST Program, the program behind 30 TAC Ch. 334, and the same row notes the financial assurance rule at 30 TAC Ch. 37 Subch. I ^[2]. Georgia reads EPD UST Management Program, under Ga. Comp. R. and Regs. 391-3-15 ^[3], and Tennessee reads TDEC Division of USTs, under Tenn. Comp. R. and Regs. 0400-18-01 ^[4].

A state whose own dispenser rules our research verified, but not its agency, is hatched, and its title says the agency is not verified in our research. Virginia and New Hampshire are the two. Every other state reads not verified in our research. The filter picks out the states with a verified agency and the states with verified dispenser rules. Point at a state, or move to it with the keyboard, and the panel beside the map lists each row with its rule and source. The gas station site plan page shows where the tank field, the fill points and the dispensers sit on a fuel site.

The agencies on the map

The agency sits in a different department from state to state, and the map names each one as its own page or rule does. Environmental agencies run most of the programs the map shows: ADEM in Alabama, under Ala. Admin. Code 335-6-15 and 335-6-16 ^[5]; the Division of Environmental Quality in Arkansas ^[6]; the DEQ Division of Waste Management, UST Section, in North Carolina ^[7]; DEP in Pennsylvania, under 25 Pa. Code Ch. 245 ^[8]; and the EEC Division of Waste Management, UST Branch, in Kentucky, under 401 KAR 42:020 ^[9]. The Georgia gas station site plan and Texas gas station site plan pages carry two of these programs into a real approval path.

Elsewhere the program sits with fire safety or with labor. Colorado's agency is the CDLE Division of Oil and Public Safety, under 7 CCR 1101-14, revised effective Jan. 1, 2025 ^[10]. Michigan's is the LARA Bureau of Fire Services, Storage Tank Division ^[11], and Nebraska's is the State Fire Marshal ^[12]. The rest of the verified agencies are Indiana's IDEM Office of Land Quality ^[13], Iowa's DNR UST Section ^[14], Missouri's DNR ^[15], Rhode Island's DEM ^[16], South Carolina's Department of Environmental Services ^[17], Utah's DEQ ERR ^[18] and Vermont's DEC ^[19]. Utah's row names DEQ ERR, the Division of Environmental Response and Remediation, from its certificate of compliance page ^[18]. The rule each row cites sits beside the agency in the panel. Missouri's program runs under RSMo 319.100 to 319.139 ^[15], South Carolina's under S.C. Code 44-2, the SUPERB act, and R.61-98 ^[17], and Michigan's under NREPA Part 211 and the Michigan UST Rules ^[11]. Rhode Island's row cites the rules adopted under RIGL 42-17.1, 46-12 and 46-13 ^[16], and North Carolina's cites 15A NCAC 02P for the fund ^[7]. The Gwinnett County gas station and c-store case study is a model project under the Georgia program.

Dispenser rules in Virginia and New Hampshire

Virginia's fire code carries the state's text of IFC Chapter 23, Motor Fuel-Dispensing Facilities and Repair Garages ^[20]. Its section 13VAC5-52-280 sets dispensing at least 10 ft from adjoining buildable lot lines and 5 ft from building openings ^[20]. It prohibits smoking and open flames within 20 ft of dispensers, and it puts dispensers within 10 ft of vehicle traffic on a 6 in concrete island unless Section 312 protection is provided ^[20]. Vapor processing equipment stays 10 ft from buildings or buildable lot lines and 20 ft from dispensers ^[20]. The Virginia state page sets these distances inside the state's site plan review.

New Hampshire applies NFPA 30A as adopted in its 2021 edition: the emergency shutoff not less than 20 ft nor more than 100 ft from dispensers, with an added device per island group, and 75 ft maximum travel to an extinguisher ^[21]. These rows are each state's own adopted text, so the map lists them under the state ^{[20, 21]}. The model codes they draw on bind elsewhere only where a state or a city has adopted them, which is why the map shows no model-code distance as a state's rule. The New Hampshire state page covers the local approval that sits on top.