Services --> RCRA --> Underground Storage Tanks
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976, Solid Waste Disposal Act Amendment of 1980, and the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendment of 1984, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 regulated in 40 CFR 264 and 280, 281 and Arkansas Regulation 12 define Underground Storage Tank regulations.

Over one million underground storage tanks systems exist in the United States containing petroleum or hazardous substances regulated by the EPA. Many of these USTs have leaked or are currently leaking. Releases from spills, overfills, or leaking tanks and piping can cause fires, explosions and threaten human safety by contaminating the groundwater.

Federal regulations for USTs are designed to reduce the chance of release, detect leaks and spills when they do occur and secure a prompt cleanup. UST owners and operators are responsible for reporting and cleaning up any releases. Monthly monitoring may be inclusive of automatic tank gauging systems, monitoring for vapors in the soil, groundwater monitoring, and statistical inventory reconciliation.

Analytical methods found in SW846, which are utilized in the evaluation of USTs spills and corrective action remediation are inclusive of:

Volatiles by GCMS (BTEX, Napthalene, MTBE*) EPA 8260
Gasoline Range Organics EPA 8015
Diesel Range Organics EPA 8015
Aromatic and Halogenated Volatiles (BTEX) EPA 8021
Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons EPA 1664, AR TPH
RCRA Metals EPA 6010, 6020, 7470

Silver, Arsenic, Barium, Cadmium, Chromium, Mercury, Lead, Selenium

  
Oklahoma Gasoline Range Organics EPA 8015 OK
Oklahoma Diesel Range Organics EPA 8015 OK

*EPA 510-F-03-001, April 2003, http://www.epa.gov/oust/mtbe/omethods.pdf discusses the appropriate methodologies for fuel oxygenates such as MTBE. This fact sheet indicates that Method 8021 (GC/PID) cannot be regarded as a consistently reliable analytical tool for the analysis of oxygenates because it is unable to detect alcohols and most ethers and it may yield either false positives or false negatives for MTBE. These problems are primarily due to co-elution interferences and the high ionization energies of many oxygenates. Determinative methods evaluated by the EPA that are capable of identifying fuel oxygenates at 5 ug/l or lower in fuel-contaminated ground water samples include Method 8260 and Method 8015. Method 8015 (GC/FID) can detect oxygenates at low concentrations, but it cannot provide positive confirmation of the chemical identity of the analyte that is detected. Therefore, compounds that co-elute may be mistaken for another leading to over- or under-reporting of actual concentrations of the oxygenated compounds. Method 8260 confirms the chemical identity while Method 8015 does not.
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