Aboveground Oil Storage Tanks

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) generally agreed with the seven recommendation in GAO's 1989 report on the regulation and inspection of aboveground storage tanks, and it has taken some steps to implement them. In 1994, EPA partially implemented GAO's recommendation on contingency planning, and by 1996 it expects to implement three more recommendations--on inspection procedures and documentation, training for inspectors, and penalties for noncompliance. EPA is uncertain when the other three recommendations--on tank construction and design and on targeting inspections--will be carried out. Implementing all of GAO's recommendations should ensure that the nation's aboveground storage tanks are being properly regulated and inspected ad that human health and the environment are safeguarded from the effects of oil spills.

GAO found that: (1) EPA has not fully implemented any of its seven recommendations to improve the safety of aboveground oil storage tanks; (2) EPA has only partially implemented the recommendations because it gave higher priority to implementing new legislative requirements and had difficulty obtaining Office of Management and Budget approval to collect data for a national inventory of regulated facilities; (3) EPA has partially implemented one of three recommendations to strengthen its regulations governing storage tank construction; (4) proposed regulations emphasize, but do not require, that tank construction comply with certain standards and recommend that tanks be periodically tested; (5) EPA has required the facilities that pose the greatest environmental risk to develop response plans to minimize damages from spilled oil, but it has no plans to extend the requirement to other facilities; and (6) EPA expects to implement three recommendations on improving inspection procedures and documentation, training inspectors, and establishing penalties for noncompliance by 1996, but it does not know when the fourth recommendation on targeting inspections will be implemented.