The State of Washington has now filed for its next rule proposal phase (CR-102), which was filed with the legislature on 1/24/2018. This proposal incorporates federal rule changes needed to maintain their state program approval for their underground storage tank program. The comment period on the new proposed rules will remain open until March 16, 2018. The public comment form can be found on their webpage here. If you are interested in learning more about the proposed rules, Washington will be hosting a webinar and in-person hearing on February 28th, 2018 at 1pm PST (4pm EST). A link to the webinar can be found here. The proposed rules changes include the following: Tank Installation

• Corrosion assessments used to avoid installing cathodic protection must be performed every 5 years after installation and reports are sent to the department for determination
• Eliminating secondary barriers for hazardous substance UST systems installed on or before 10/1/12
• UDCs must be factory built or machine-tooled until otherwise approved by department
• Compatibility demonstration requirements for USTs including hazardous substances; records retained for life of UST or change in service
• Existing and previously deferred USTs must maintain upgrade records be maintained for life of UST in addition to repairs

Operation and Maintenance

• Product deliverers must comply with spill and overfill requirements and report spills to Owner/operator
• Walkthrough inspections (30 days) begin upon installation (after effective date) or one year after effective date for UST systems installed before effective date
  • 3 years of inspections must be maintained
• 24 hour notification to corrosion expert for cathodic protection not operating correctly
• Record retention for cathodic protection tests changed to 6 years; rectifier inspections maintained for 3 years.
• Spill prevention and sump tightness testing must be performed by certified provider and reported to agency
• Periodic monitoring of sumps/spill buckets be retained for 3 years
• Tightness test documents retained for 6 years
• Overfill prevention inspections must be performed by certified provider and be reported
• Flow restrictors that are broken must be replaced with other overfill protection
• Testing after repairs to UST system within 30 days; records retained for 3 years. Testing is reported
• Monitoring or tightness testing of containment sumps used for interstitial monitoring of piping, monitoring or tightness testing of spill prevention equipment (spill buckets), Inspections of overfill prevention equipment, and tests of release detection equipment has specific implementation dates based on your facility compliance tag number
  • If your facility compliance tag number is even, then these must be completed within two years after the effective date of rule
  • If you facility compliance tag number is odd, then then these must be completed within three years after the effective date of rule

A more comprehensive, detailed list of proposed rule changes can be found here. The full rule document with all tracked changes can be found here. For more information, please visit the State of Washington’s regulatory update page.