New Regs Ease UST FUND Acceptance

There are significant changes in the Permit Waver requirement of the California UST Petroleum Fund application process. Ceres Associates considers these significant changes because they represent the difference for two of our clients of getting on the FUND or not getting on the FUND. Prior to the recent court ruling, if you owned a property that had unknown tanks and contamination was found, you did not have access to the FUND, even though this seems to be contrary to the spirit of the law that created the FUND. However, based upon a recent court decision in Kelsoe v. State Water Resources Control Board, that concept has changed. It is the opinion of the Court of Appeals that a permit waver may be used to excuse permit noncompliance that occurred before January 1, 1990. In addition, under the Kelsoe Decision if noncompliance occurred after January 1, 1990 and certain conditions have been met then a permit waiver will be granted.

In addition to the Kelsoe Decision, there is Assembly Bill (AB) 1437 that becomes effective January 1, 2008. AB1437 states that permit compliance is satisfied if the claimant obtained a UST permit when the claimant became subject to UST permitting requirements, or when local regulators started issuing permits, whichever is later. In addition AB1437 states that if there are unknown tanks on a property, after reasonable due diligence is conducted and the claimant was unaware of the USTs, the claimant can claim permit compliance.

Obviously, we have simplified the two changes here. If you would like to know more, please give us a call.