Remediating California's Underground Storage Tank Fund

I had the opportunity to attend the California State Water Resource Control Board's workshop on the topic of the Underground Storage Tank Clean-up Funds "DISCUSSION OF FUND CONDITION, DELAY IN REIMBURSEMENTS, AND SUSPENSION OF LETTERS OF COMMITMENT".

The background:

The UST fund had recently delayed funding and essentially suspended remediation projects until revenue levels equalize. A contributing effect is that reimbursement for some or most UST remediation projects is delayed, causing consultants and others to decide on such things as whether they want to finance leaking UST projects for up to two years at what is essentially interest free financing before being reimbursed.

In this economic environment, many or most leaking UST projects have come to a screeching halt, causing consultants to adjust their business models (a euphemism for laying off staff) and responsible parties to be left with little recourse for assistance in cleaning up leaky tanks.

The workshop consisted of a PowerPoint presentation given by Allan Patton outlining a short history on the fund and a narrative to how the fund is "funded" and what has been happening to the fund over the last year (in short revenue is down and costs are up).

From their the workshop was opened up to attendees to give their thoughts, air grievances and offer up suggestions to the board leadership.

First to speak were members of CIOMA, including Responsible Parties and then their consultants. After CIOMA, individuals were allowed to speak for up to 5 minutes per person to air their suggestions and thoughts.

At a certain point, the ideas and grievances mostly started to become repetitive. The main take away points, for me at least, came down to the following:

• Increase collection activity from UST operators (a percentage of them are delinquent causing revenue shortfall)
• Reduce monitoring frequencies on sites to semi-annual wherever prudent
• Condense Roles and Responsibilities of local and regional oversight officials.
• Speed up closure process. Too many sites are being left open for seemingly illegitimate reasons.
  
• Moved to a Risk Based Corrective Action model instead of a one size fits all approach to remediation
• Convene independent board for review of cases for closure.
• Raise the UST pump tax to $0.02 per gallon. (it is currently .014/gallon)

There seems to be no question that people and officials are interested in addressing issues. Let's face it, they all want jobs and the security that comes with real progress in getting these sites cleaned-up. There are many changes that could be made to make things more efficient and I would expect that some changes will be made on many fronts.

Nonetheless, as a realist, I think the biggest question that needs to be answered is: "Will the CA UST gas tax be increased"? In this economic climate, will the motoring public pay an extra $0.75 to fill up their tank, thereby allowing the extra funding for the cleaning up of their already limited water supply?

My prediction is that a critical mass composed of business, the green movement and soccer moms will all say yes.