On Dec. 22, 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) adopted amendments to regulations codified in 25 Pa. Code Ch. 245, relating to Administration of the Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Program. Pennsylvania operates the underground storage tank (UST) portion of its regulatory program pursuant to a state program approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 40 C.F.R. Part 281. The EPA first promulgated UST regulations in 1988, and the commonwealth then passed the Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act (Tank Act) in 1989 to provide for the regulation of USTs and aboveground storage tanks, see 35 P.S. Sections 6021.101-6021.2104.

In July 2015, the EPA published revisions to the federal storage tank regulations, which became effective on Oct. 13, 2015. The recent Pennsylvania rulemaking was required to conform Pennsylvania’s UST regulations to the federal amendments, and to ensure Pennsylvania’s continued receipt of approximately $2.3 million of federal funds to administer the UST program. The Environmental Quality Board (EQB), the 20-member board that adopts Pennsylvania’s environmental regulations, also concluded that the regulations are necessary to “further prevent releases of regulated substances from USTs into the environment.” It noted that in a one-year period from October 2016 through September 2017, PADEP cited 210 releases from USTs “which were the result of improper operation and maintenance.”