The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has completed its review of the 2011 proposed revisions to the EPA's UST regulations (40 CFR 280), and it is projected that the final rule will be published in the Federal Register some time in June 2015.

As a reminder to those who may not be familiar with these revisions, the proposed rule changes include:

• adding secondary containment requirements for new and replaced tanks and piping;
• adding operator training requirements, including a retraining requirement;
• adding periodic operation and maintenance requirements for UST systems, including monthly visual walkthrough inspections;
• removing certain deferrals;
• adding new release prevention and detection technologies;
• updating codes of practice;
• making editorial and technical corrections; and
• updating state program approval requirements to incorporate these new changes.

The key takeaways from all of this is that the we now need to start preparing for these operational changes.

• Make sure you have a plan in place that includes a system to track your employees' UST operator training and when they will need to retrain
  • PASS Training is built with the UST industry in mind, and can greatly simplify the role of a store or compliance manager
• Put together a plan on how you will inspect your UST systems and document the necessary information
  • If you aren't sure where to start, PASS Tools has you covered

The Federal Register is published online daily, and our team continues to monitor the progress of these rule changes.  We will be sure to pass along any updates. If you are interested, you can track the revision's progress here.