Lincoln Chafee: “today I introduce the Underground Storage Tank Compliance Act of 2001. This legislation will bring all underground…”

“today I introduce the Underground Storage Tank Compliance Act of 2001. This legislation will bring all underground storage tanks, USTs, into compliance with Federal law and finish the work begun seventeen years ago with enactment of the UST provisions of the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The legislation will emphasize leak prevention and compliance with existing statutes. In addition, this bipartisan bill will assist communities in coping with the contamination of groundwater and oil by methl tertiary butyl ether, MTBE. In 1984, Congress enacted as Subtitle I of the Solid Waste Disposal Act a comprehensive program to address the problem of leaking underground storage tanks. With the goal of protecting the Nation's groundwater from leaking tanks, the 1984 law imposed minimum Federal requirements for leak detection and prevention standards for USTs. In 1988, owners and operators of existing underground storage tank systems were given a ten-year window to upgrade, replace, or close tanks that didn't meet minimum federal requirements for spill, overfill, and corrosion protection. As the deadline passed on December 22, 1988, many underground storage tanks failed to meet the federal standards. To assess the situation, Senator Smith of New Hampshire and I commissioned the U.S. General Accounting Office, GAO, to examine compliance of USTs with Federal requirements. GAO concluded in May 2001 that only 89 percent of tanks were meeting Federal equipment standards.”