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State UST Financial Assurance Funds
EPA allows UST owners and operators to comply with the federal financial responsibility regulation (36 pp, 147K, About PDF), which requires the ability to pay for cleanup or third-party liability compensation, in several ways. One option is UST owners and operators participate in a state UST financial assurance fund that provides all federally-required coverage. Over the past ten years, state UST financial assurance funds have paid approximately $7 billion to clean up leaking UST sites. Many states have various funds to clean up UST releases, but not all meet the federal financial responsibility regulation.
Status Of State UST Financial Assurance Funds
- Thirty-six states have state financial assurance funds, which help UST owners comply with the federal financial responsibility regulation. These funds pay to clean up newly reported releases as well as ongoing cleanups.
- Four states have funds that no longer provide financial responsibility for UST owners, but continue to pay for those ongoing cleanups where they assumed financial responsibility in the past.
- Ten states, the District of Columbia, and five territories rely entirely on EPA-approved, privately-funded financial responsibility mechanisms to finance all UST cleanups and comply with the federal financial responsibility regulation.
- The design and policies of states’ assurance funds differ. For state and territorial UST-LUST program status and how to contact a state’s fund program, select a state or territory below.
| Active Fund Pays For New And Past Releases (36 states) |
Fund Pays For Past Releases Only (4 states) |
No Fund That Provides All Federally-Required Coverage (10 states, DC, and 5 territories) |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana |
Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Utah Vermont Virginia Wyoming |
Arizona Florida Texas Wisconsin |
Alaska
|
Oversight Of State UST Financial Assurance Funds
- EPA developed Guidance For Regional Office Review Of State Underground Storage Tank Financial Assurance Funds (PDF) (18 pp, 87K, About PDF) to help ensure the adequacy of state UST financial assurance funds. The guidance provides EPA regional offices with recommended procedures and factors to consider for monitoring the soundness of state UST financial assurance funds. It applies to the 40 states (listed in the first two columns of the table above) that continue paying to clean up UST releases for which the fund has assumed financial responsibility.
- EPA regional offices approve state UST financial assurance funds and ensure the funds fulfill the federal financial responsibility regulation. EPA regional offices may also withdraw state fund approval.