Underground Storage Tank (USTs) Guidance

Publications Related to Underground Storage Tanks

You can read these publications online or download them to print. Read important information about this list before you download any documents.

NOTE: QA documents referred to in some of the following publications may be outdated. Visit The EPA Quality System web site for the latest version of EPA's QA documents.

You can also order publications by calling EPA's toll-free RCRA, Superfund & EPCRA Call Center at 800-424-9346. Or you can contact the National Service Center for Environmental Publications (NSCEP) via telephone, U.S. Mail, or the Internet. NSCEP's toll-free number is 800-490-9198; or you can fax your order to 513-891-6685. NSCEP's mailing address is: Box 42419, Cincinnati, OH 45242. The URL for NSCEP's web site is http://www.epa.gov/ncepihom/. At this web site you can search for documents and place your order on-line.

• Automatic Tank Gauging Systems for Release Detection: Reference Manual for Underground Storage Tank Inspectors (EPA 510-B-00-009). August 2000.
  This manual can help State and EPA inspectors of underground storage tanks (USTs) evaluate how well UST owners and operators are using their automatic tank gauging (ATG) systems to comply with release detection requirements. Also, the manual provides handouts that UST inspectors can distribute to UST owners and operators to help them understand the proper operation and maintenance of their ATG systems. In its 140-pages, the manual contains a summary of specifications, based on third-party evaluations, for ATG systems that detect leaks from USTs and their piping. Each summary provides information on certified detectable leak rate/threshold, test period duration, product applicability, calibration requirements, restrictions on the use of the device, vendor contact information, printing and interpreting reports, sample reports, and so on. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Catalog of EPA Materials on Underground Storage Tanks (EPA-510-B-00-001), January 2000.
  This booklet provides an annotated list of UST materials and includes ordering information. Many of the informational leaflets, booklets, videos, and software items listed are designed to provide UST owners and operators with information to help them comply with the federal UST requirements. Please note the publication date of individual titles in the catalog - some information may be outdated. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Cleaning Up Leaks From Underground Storage Tanks. (EPA 510-F-04-003). April 2004.
  This 2-page, tri-fold flyer presents information on cleanup progress and program initiatives. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Closing Underground Storage Tanks: Brief Facts. (EPA 510-F-96-004). July 1996.
  This 2-page, tri-fold flyer presents basic information about proper UST system closure. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Doing Inventory Control Right for Underground Storage Tanks (EPA 510-B-93-004). November 1993.
  This 17-page booklet describes inventory control methods that can be used to help owners and operators of underground storage tank (UST) systems meet federal regulatory leak detection requirements. The booklet provides a step-by-step process for inventory control that is clear and easy to follow. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Dollars & Sense (EPA 510-K-95-004). July 1995.
  This 16-page booklet provides a plain-English summary of UST owners' and operators' financial responsibilities under Federal UST regulations. Includes definition of financial responsibility - evidence of owners' and operators' ability to ensure, through insurance or other means, that they can pay for cleanups and third-party damages associated with a release. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Estimating Air Emissions from Petroleum UST Cleanups
  This guidance document (June 1989) and companion field cards (September 1989) are intended to provide State regulators with a means of estimating air emission rates of VOCs and benzene at individual UST cleanup sites. This information may be used to develop policies regulating such air emissions. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Expedited Site Assessment Tools For Underground Storage Tank Sites: A Guide for Regulators. (EPA 510-B-97-001). March 1997.
  The expedited site assessment (ESA) process is a framework for rapidly characterizing UST site conditions for corrective action decisions. This concept has been described with other names including: accelerated site characterization, rapid site characterization, and expedited site investigation. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Financial Responsibility for Underground Storage Tanks: A Reference Manual (EPA-510-B-00-003) January 2000.
  This detailed, comprehensive manual provides UST inspectors with the restrictions, limitations, and requirements of each financial responsibility mechanism provided in the federal UST regulations. Note that this "Reference Manual" is based on the federal UST financial responsibility requirements, though it should provide useful information and insight into understanding and reviewing state-specific financial responsibility mechanisms. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Financing Underground Storage Tank Work: Federal and State Assistance Programs (EPA-510-B-99-002) March 1999.
  This 25-page booklet identifies potential sources of financial assistance to cover the costs of upgrading, replacing, or closing an UST, or of cleaning up an UST release. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Getting The Most Out Of Your Automatic Tank Gauging System (EPA-510-F-98-011) March 1998.
  Tri-fold leaflet provides UST owners and operators with a basic checklist they can use to make sure their automatic tank gauging systems work effectively. As a compliance assistance tool, the leaflet focuses on what actions the UST owner and operator must take to comply with leak detection requirements and prevent significant cleanup problems. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• How to Effectively Recover Free Product At Leaking Underground Storage Tank Sites: A Guide for State Regulators. (EPA 510-R-96-001). September 1996.
  Technical guidance document helps state regulators and cleanup contractors review those parts of an UST corrective action plan that propose free-product-recovery technologies. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• How to Evaluate Alternative Cleanup Technologies for Underground
  Storage Tank Sites: A Guide for Corrective Action Plan Reviewers.
  (EPA 510-B-94-003; EPA 510-B-95-007; and EPA 510-R-04-002).
  The original manual covered 8 alternative technologies: soil vapor extraction (SVE), air sparging, biosparging, landfarming, biopiles, bioventing, low-temperature thermal desorption, and natural attenuation. In May 1995, two additional chapters (dual-phase extraction and in situ groundwater bioremediation) were added and the Introduction and Glossary were updated at the same time. In May 2004 the manual was again been updated with the addition of two new chapters (enhanced aerobic bioremediation and chemical oxidation) and revision of the introductory chapter and the chapter on monitored natural attenuation. The revised document carries the same title but a new number - EPA 510-R-04-002.To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Introduction to Statistical Inventory Reconciliation For Underground Storage Tanks (EPA 510-B-95-009). September 1995.
  This 12-page booklet provides basic information on this leak detection method. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• List of Integrity Assessment Evaluations for UndergroundStorage Tanks - Third Edition January 22, 1999.
  This 8-page EPA Memorandum (dated February 9, 1999) provides a list of integrity assessment procedures that have been successfully evaluated and certified by a qualified independent third party to meet specified performance criteria. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Leveraging State Funds to Increase Compliance
  This 1994 bulletin is intended to explain methods that many states have found effective in increasing compliance and controlling cleanup costs. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• List of Known Insurance Providers for Underground Storage Tanks
  EPA 510-B-04-001, July 2004.
  This booklet provides UST owners and operators with a list of insurance providers who may be able to help UST owners and operators comply with financial responsibility requirements by providing a suitable insurance mechanism. Note that this edition replaces earlier editions dated July 1999 and January 2000 bearing the same title. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• List of Leak Detection Evaluations for UST Systems
  This "List" is not an OUST publication, but for several years this publication - developed by the National Work Group On Leak Detection Evaluations (NWGLDE) - was available on our Web site. However, there is a new home for this useful publication at the Web site maintained by NWGLDE. NWGLDE has worked on leak detection issues for several years and it has now launched its own Web site. Please visit this new Web site for a variety of leak detection related information, which includes the most recent list of leak detection methods that have been evaluated by third parties to see if they meet EPA's performance standards. Previously much of this information could be found on the OUST Web site, but now and in the future the NWGLDE Web site will be the place to go for the latest information on leak detection evaluations and related policy matters. Visit the NWGLDE Web site.

• Manual Tank Gauging for Small Underground Storage Tanks. (EPA 510-B-93-005). November 1993.
  This 12-page booklet explains the Federal and state laws require that underground storage tanks (USTs) to be equipped with leak detection systems. Although much attention has been focused on large USTs, it is important that leaks from smaller tanks (generally less than 2,000 gallons of capacity) also have leak detection systems. This booklet provides simple, easy to follow, step-by-step directions for the correct way to conduct manual tank gauging for these smaller tanks. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Model Underground Storage Tank Environmental Results Program Workbook. (EPA-510-R-04-003). June 2004.
  This model workbook is a tool to help state underground storage tank (UST) programs and state funds improve owner and operator compliance with UST regulations. States may need to modify the model workbook to reflect their own state laws. States may then request or require tank owners and operators follow the final, state-specific environmental results program (ERP) workbook, which can help owners remain in or achieve compliance with UST requirements. The primary audience for the workbook is UST owners and operators who either volunteer or are required to use the workbook to determine whether or not their facilities comply with UST requirements. The 164-page workbook contains general information about ERP; instructions on how to use the workbook; regulatory requirements, best management practices, and compliance checklists for USTs; and draft forms and worksheets in the appendices. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Musts for USTs: A Summary of the Federal Regulations for Underground Storage Tank Systems (EPA 510-K-95-002).
  This 40-page booklet summarizes federal UST requirements for installation, release detection, spill, overfill, and corrosion protection, corrective action, closure, reporting and recordkeeping. Although parts of the booklet were written to prepare people for the 1998 deadline, that material is now generally dated or no longer applicable. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Operating and Maintaining Underground Storage Tank Systems: Practical Help and Checklists (EPA 510-B-00-008). August 2000.
  This 50-page manual contains brief summaries of the federal UST requirements for operation and maintenance (O&M), as well as practical help that goes beyond the requirements. Checklists prompt the user to look closely at what kinds of equipment are in use and how to keep that equipment working properly over the lifetime of the UST system. The manual provides recordkeeping forms that also help the UST owner and operator keep equipment operating properly. Owners and operators of underground storage tank (UST) systems will find this manual contains checklists and information that will help them properly operate and maintain their USTs. State and EPA UST inspectors can use the manual and its checklists to help educate UST owners and operators and encourage their compliance with the UST requirements. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Report to Congress on a Compliance Plan for the Underground Storage Tank Program (EPA-510-R-00-001). June 2000.
  Congress in its FY2000 Appropriations Committee Conference Report directed the U.S. EPA to prepare and submit to Congress a compliance plan regarding the underground storage tank (UST) program. EPA developed this 70-page report in response to that request. The report presents information and cost estimates necessary to: identify USTs that are not in compliance with Subtitle I of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; identify USTs in temporary closure; determine the ownership of USTs not in compliance or in temporary closure; determine the plans of owners and operators to bring USTs into compliance or out of temporary closure; and determine how USTs, for which no owner can be identified, will be brought into compliance or closed permanently. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Reuse of Abandoned Gas Station Sites (EPA-510-F-04-001). February 2004.
  This three-page information sheet briefly describes EPA's efforts to put to productive use the thousands of polluted, abandoned gas stations and other petroleum-contaminated sites that blight America's landscape. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Standard Test Procedures for Evaluating Various Leak Detection Methods (EPA/530/UST-90/004 through EPA/530/UST-90/010) March 1990.
  EPA produced seven testing protocols that sophisticated, professional testers could use to demonstrate that an individual release detection equipment type could meet the performance requirements noted in the federal UST requirements for detecting leaks. These protocols are: Automatic Tank Gauging Systems; Liquid-Phase Out-of-Tank Product Detectors; Non-Volumetric Tank Tightness Testing Methods; Pipeline Leak Detection Systems; Statistical Inventory Reconciliation Methods; Vapor-Phase Out-of-Tank Product Detectors; and Volumetric Tank Tightness Testing Methods. To read, download, or print any of these protocols, click here.

• State Funds in Transition: Models for Underground Storage Tank Assurance Funds (EPA 510-B-97-002). January 1997.
  This 40-page booklet is intended for state officials who are considering changes and alternatives to their state funds. The booklet presents "case studies" describing some of the activities that three states have conducted in making a transition from a state fund program to other financial assurance mechanisms. The booklet also describes five programs that might serve as "models" for states that have decided to change the structure of their state funds. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Straight Talk On Tanks: Leak Detection Methods for Petroleum Underground Storage Tanks and Piping (EPA 510-B-97-007). September 1997.
  This 28-page booklet provides easy-to-understand descriptions of several leak detection methods for tanks and piping, as well as explanations of the regulatory requirements for leak detection. Leak detection methods include: secondary containment with interstitial monitoring, automatic tank gauging, vapor monitoring, groundwater monitoring, statistical inventory control, tank tightness testing with inventory control, and manual tank gauging. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Survey of Flexible Piping Systems March 1997.
  This survey includes information on which companies are making various types of flexible pipe, the number of installers, piping construction, compatibility, materials warranty, and the status of various system in meeting national codes and standards. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Underground Storage Tanks: Building On The Past To Protect The Future
  (EPA 510-R-04-001). March 2004.
  This 26-page report describes how EPA, states, tribes, and industry have successfully worked together to close 1.5 million unsafe tanks, upgrade or replace nearly all other tanks, cleanup over 300,000 releases, and dramatically reduce the number of new releases from a high of over 66,000 in 1990 to roughly 12,000 in 2003. The report also looks to future challenges such as cleaning up 130,000 remaining known releases, reusing 200,000 abandoned gas stations and petroleum brownfields sites, and improving compliance at every site to prevent new releases. To read, download, or print this report, click here.

• UST Program Facts
  The outdated publication "UST Program Facts..." (1996) is no longer available. However, the following Web pages from our site provide a program overview by briefly summarizing the UST program and some basic facts that are updated roughly every six months. To read, download, or print these facts, click here.

• Underground Storage Tank Program: Regional and State Contacts. (EPA 510-F-00-001) January 2000.
  An eight-page brochure that lists Regional and State UST/LUST program addresses, phone numbers, and web site addresses. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

• Underground Storage Tanks: Requirements and Options. (EPA 510-F-97-005). June 1997.
  A leaflet directed to nonmarketers of petroleum that provides you with a quick overview of your responsibilities and choices for complying with Federal UST regulations. The leaflet also provides a selected list of relevant publications and other sources of information about USTs. To read, download, or print this publication, click here.

NOTE: documents with an "EXE" extension in the filename have been compressed to shorten the time required for downloading. These files are self-extracting - to decompress, after downloading "Run" the file by: from Windows either double-click on the filename from file manager or highlight the filename and select "Run" from the "Files" pull-down menu, or from DOS simply type the filename (without the .EXE is OK) and press (Enter).

Some of the documents provided by EPA are in an Adobe Acrobat PDF (Portable Document Format) file. These documents have a "PDF" file extension. These must be viewed using the Adobe Acrobat viewer that can be downloaded free for Unix, Macintosh, IBM DOS and IBM Windows operating systems. The readers are available directly from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

A

• Overfill Alarms
• Automatic Tank Gauging Systems for Release Detection: Reference Manual for Underground Storage Tank Inspectors. (EPA-510-B-00-009) (August 2000)

B

• Biopiles
• Biosparging
• Bioventing
• In Situ Groundwater Bioremediation
• Landfarming

• Home Page
• Recommendations For Improving UST Programs

C

Cathodic Protection ("CP")
CERCLA List of Hazardous Substances
Checklists (from Operating and Maintaining Underground Storage Tank Systems: Practical Help and Checklists (EPA 510-B-00-008). August 2000.)
Chemical USTs (see Hazardous Substance USTs)
Cleaning Up UST System Releases
Closing Tanks/UST Systems
CLU-IN Web site
Codes of Practice (Industry Codes and Standards)
Comments
Compendium, UST Technical
Complaints
Compliance Help
Contacts

• EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks Staff
• State UST/LUST Program Offices
• State Fund Program Offices

D

E

F

• UST Notification Form (EPA Form 7530-1)

G

H

I

J

L

• General Information on Leak Detection
• Standard Procedures for Evaluating Leak Detection Methods
• List of Leak Detection Evaluations

• Fact Sheet
• Policy Directives

• List of CERCLA Hazardous Substances
• List of Leak Detection Evaluations

Manual Tank Gauging
Map of EPA Regions
Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE)
Monitored Natural Attenuation

• General Information on Monitored Natural Attenuation
• OSWER's Monitored Natural Attenuation Workgroup
• OSWER Directive 9200.4-17P "Use of Monitored Natural Attenuation at Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action, and Underground Storage Tank Sites", April 21, 1999
• Major differences between the Interim (December 1, 1997) and Final (April 21, 1999) versions of the OSWER MNA Directive
• A Comparison of The EPA MNA Directive and The ASTM RNA Standard: A PowerPoint presentation by Matt Small (EPA Region 9) and Hal White (EPA OUST) at the 10th Annual UST/LUST Conference, Long Beach, CA March 30-April 1, 1998
  • In MicroSoft Powerpoint Format

• Secondary Containment with Interstitial Monitoring (Leak Detection Method)
• Vapors in the Soil (Leak Detection Method)
• Liquid on the Groundwater (Leak Detection Method)

N

O

OnSite Calculator
Operation and Maintenance of UST Systems

• Operation and Maintenance of UST Systems
• Operating And Maintaining Underground Storage Tank Systems: Practical Help And Checklists. EPA 510-B-00-008 (August 2000)
• List of Existing O&M Tools
• New O&M Logos

P

• Index of OUST's Publications

Q

"Quarterly Reports" (see Corrective Action Measures)

R

• "Recycling America's Gas Stations" (this NEMW and NALGEP Report on Initial USTfields Pilots is available on the Northeast Midwest Institute Web Site in PDF format)
• Cleaning Up and Reusing Abandoned Gas Station Sites
• USTfields Initiative

S

Safe Fuel Handling Practices
Section 610 Review of UST Regulations (under Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 USC 610)
"Semi-Annual Reports" (see Corrective Action Measures)
Site Assessment, Expedited
Soil Vapor Extraction (SVE)
SPA (see State Program Approval)
Spill Protection
Standards

• Industry Codes
• Federal
  "STARS" Data (see Corrective Action Measures)

• General information on State, Local, & Tribal Governments
• State Funds
• State Program Approval
• Internet Addresses & Links
• Directory of State and Territorial Tank Programs

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

0-9

1998 Deadline

Information on the deadline for upgrading or closing substandard UST systems...*NOTE this deadline has passed*

40 CFR Part 280

Technical Standards and Corrective Action Requirements for Owners and Operators of Underground Storage Tanks (USTs)

40 CFR Part 281

Approval of State Underground Storage Tank Programs

40 CFR Part 282

Codification of Individual State and Territorial UST Programs

40 CFR Part 302.4

Designation of Hazardous Substances; CERCLA List of Hazardous Substances

610 Review, Section

Review of UST Regulations under Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 USC 610)

9200.4-17P

OSWER Directive: "Use of Monitored Natural Attenuation at Superfund, RCRA Corrective Action, and Underground Storage Tank Sites", April 21, 1999

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