States are often challenged with the impacts of staff turnover, trying to balance between onboarding of new staff, keeping sites moving towards closure, and ensuring existing staff continue to be engaged. In this session, South Carolina will share their successful onboarding/training program for new hires, and the ASTSWMO LUST Task Force and Financial Responsibility Task Force will provide resources for States to help with establishing a foundation for new LUST and FR staff.

Start the workshop off by learning how electronic monitoring systems work with a local Certified UST Technician! In this session, Mark Lindsey, Tanknology Regional Vice President of Southern California Region will present monitoring equipment live in-person, as well as discuss how to access monitoring system data and determine if a system is passing or not.

Over the past 30 years, State funds have paid out over $25 billion cleaning up petroleum storage tank releases. Meanwhile many of the operating UST systems have grown older and releases have continued to occur. One of the possible remedies for this situation is the concept of “Pay for Prevention”. Pay for Prevention is the idea of using State fund monies to leverage UST system replacements or upgrades and thereby preventing releases from happening. Four States will provide examples of how they use State monies to assist owners in improving UST system equipment through means such as loans, grants, rebates, and incentives.

Want to know what the most common overfill prevention equipment and corrosion protection systems are? Problems with these systems and issues with testing represent some of the most common violations issued during UST inspections. By attending this session and incorporating this knowledge to your toolbelt, it will be of great benefit to you in your future careers!

In several brief presentations, EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks (OUST) together with the ASTSWMO Financial Responsibility Task Force will share what initiatives were taken to create the Fund Sustainability Position Paper and three developments that have followed those efforts.

What UST testing methods does your State see? In this session, you’ll hear from the Department of Environment and Conservation in Tennessee and their approved UST testing methods. Then, get a glimpse of the Department of Environmental Protection in New Jersey contractor licensing program and ways to find and enforce fraudulent or incorrect testing.

Find out what’s new with the Annual Tanks Update! In partnership with ASTSWMO, the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and Washington Pollution Liability Insurance Agency conduct an annual survey of all State Financial Assurance Fund programs and provide results on the design characteristics, funding, and fund. ASTSWMO has updated the data collection and reporting processes to create a new “Annual Tanks Update,” which includes information from release prevention, remediation, and financial assurance programs. In this session, you will hear how States have benefitted from utilizing the Annual Tanks Update Survey data, review the data collected over the years, and discuss how your State may benefit from using this tool for your State Fund.

In this session, we will review the issues with UST containment sumps, under dispenser containments, and spill buckets. Discuss the importance of meeting the requirements of proper sump inspections and repairs that can ultimately lead to releases if overlooked or ignored.

In the past, LUST sites did not leverage funds from Brownfields, either due to non-eligibility, or not knowing how. During this session you will hear from three perspectives on the national and State level on how you can get a ‘Yes!’ from your Brownfields Program to leverage funding to assist with cleanup on low priority abandoned LUST sites or assist with redevelopment of abandoned UST facilities.

Join us to review the Wyoming Storage Tank Program inspects installations in three phases: 1: Tank Set and backfill, 2: Pressure/soap test of piping primary and interstice, and 3: Final approval inspection piping, Sumps, UDCs, ALLDs, overfill, spill buckets, etc!

This session gives more thought to the saying, ‘You catch more flies with honey than vinegar’. In several brief presentations, attendees will hear about the initiatives taken in response to issues associated with contractor testing, agency limitations and challenges, and various enforcement strategies. These presentations will reflect the perspective of the following regulatory agencies: the Tennessee Dept of Environment and Conservation, the New Jersey Dept of Environmental Protection, and the South Carolina Dept of Environmental Quality. This session will end with a facilitated discussion with the panel of speakers and all participants.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection will cover Wisconsin’s containment sump upgrade, repair requirements, as well as a detailed example of a tank repair with complex details and graphics!

Since the implementation of the 2005 Energy Policy Act which requires States to include the source and cause of underground storage tank petroleum releases in the public record, it has become evident that determining the exact source and cause of a release can sometimes be difficult and, as a result, are often classified as “other” or “unknown”. This session will provide an overview of the different sources and causes of releases, the ambiguity in some of the classifications, some likely and unexpected sources and causes of releases, and an innovative approach to training for tank systems and mobile inspections to help facilitate a better understanding of sources and causes of petroleum releases.