Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board
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The Montana Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board
Proposed 2009 Legislation
April 2008
The Board conducts analysis of the short-term and long-term viability of the
fund and reports its findings biannually. This analysis includes evaluation
of trends in fund revenue and expenditure activity; assessment of exposure
to long-term liabilities; appraisal of the impacts of changes in state and federal regulations relating to underground and aboveground storage tanks;
and consideration of availability of petroleum storage tank liability
insurance in the private sector and trends in
provisions of the insurance.
Recent changes in regulations and the condition of the fund has resulted in
the Board considering legislation during the states 61st legislative session
to be held in 2009. At their recent meeting the Board voted to go forth with
two pieces of legislation; one bill pertaining to significant changes to
co-payments, insurance incentives, and other fund statutes and the second
dealing with a fee increase.
The Board asked to convene a work group meeting which occurred on February 15, 2008 for the purpose of providing information to the Board on 2009 legislation. This work group convened to construct the concepts which were later drafted into proposed legislative changes. The proposed changes included self inspection for above ground storage tanks (ASTs), a change in owner/operator co-payment for all classes of petroleum storage tanks, changes to available coverage, removal of regulatory administrative costs from the fund, an increase in the funds floor and ceiling, incentives for owner/operator insurance coverage, and some house keeping changes.
With regard to ASTs, the Board is proposing a self-inspection program where facilities would need to be in compliance with current laws and rules in order to be eligible for the a $1 million fund cap. At the moment, the Fire Marshall requires a facility to be in compliance with Fire Marshall’s laws and rules in effect at the time the facility was installed, not the current laws and rules.
The Board does not wish to remove heating oil tanks from the Fund, however
they do want to limit the liability of heating oil tanks on the fund. The
Board is proposing to increase the owner/operator contribution towards
cleanup and to reduce the total amount of coverage offered on heating oil
tanks.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 has resulted in regulatory changes which
require all new systems to be double walled and for existing single wall
underground storage tank systems to eventually be upgraded to double wall.
The Board feels that given the requirement
for systems to migrate to double
wall that there is no need to use the co-pay as an incentive. The proposed
legislation will result in no difference in co-payment between single and
double wall systems.
A draft copy of the proposed statutory language changes are available on the Boards web site at: Reference Documents
Minimum Claim Submittal:
The Board currently has a minimum application amount Policy which requires a
minimum application amount of $200.00 with some exceptions.
This policy was made effective as of January 1, 1998. The Board intends to
having the minimum application amount increased to $1,000.00 in an effort to
reduce claim processing activities and associated costs. A copy of the
policy is available on the web site at:
http://deq.mt.gov/pet/BoardPolicies/claimamtpolicy.asp
Review of Large Work-Plan Activity:
The Board determined on October 6, 2003, that effective October 6, 2003, the Board Director be delegated the authority to sign weekly claim reimbursement forms. The Board staff will review the claims for the Board. If the dollar amount of the claim is above $25,000.00 the claim must be approved and ratified by the Board at a regularly scheduled meeting before reimbursement can be made. Claims that are $25,000.00 or less are approved for reimbursement by the Executive Director and the Board ratifies these at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The Board is concerned that contractors have been avoiding this review by submitting several claims under $25,000.00 rather than one claim for a phase of work, thus resulting in an increase in claim processing activity and associated costs. As a result, the Board is planning to review work-plans which result in significant costs to the fund in an effort to control administrative and cleanup reimbursement costs.
Consultants Meeting:
The Department of Environmental quality and the Petroleum Tank Release Compensation Board announce the scheduling of a Consultants meeting:
May 1, 2008 (Meetings
Page)
1:00 pm
Room 112
Last Chance Gulch building
1100 N. Last Chance Gulch,
Helena, MT.
