If you are an Underground Storage Tank Owner, please refer to the following information and Fact Sheet complied by Doug Miller, SD DENR.
In July 2015 the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revised its existing underground storage tank (UST) rules. The authority to implement the UST rules had been delegated the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in 1994; except for regulated UST systems in Indian Country. To continue to be the implementing agency in South Dakota DENR needed to amend its UST rules to make them consistent with the federal governments. These rules changes were presented to the Board of Water Management in May 2018 and became effective in June 2018.
As an existing delegated state program EPA allowed DENR to have three years beyond the effective date of the federal requirements to implement the changes. DENR elected to use this option to have the effective date for the periodic testing of tank components and monthly walkthroughs be October 2021. This addition time frame was to allow for testing technologies to be refined and service companies to gear up. It should be stressed these requirements must be met by October 2021, regulated owners and operators should not wait until the last minute.
The rule making process resulted in many changes. A large percentage of these changes were for updating references and cleaning up language. In addition there were changes that only affected a small number of owners and operators; such as field construction requirements and airport hydrant systems.
Owners and operators need to be aware some of the minor changes, which became effective this year, could impact them. These include the notification of change of ownership and the notification of change of product. DENR has forms available on-line for these notifications. The attached flyer is a summary of the most significant changes in the UST rules.
It should be noted that although DENR has set and effective date for some of the requirements as October 2021, other states could have earlier effective dates. If you have businesses in other states you should check with the regulatory agency in that state. As noted previously facilities located within the confines of an established Indian Reservation would have to comply with the federal implementation dates.