Underground Storage Tanks

EPA and our partners have made enormous progress by cleaning up over 300,000 contaminated sites, or 70 percent of all known releases. Still, 130,000 contaminated sites need to be cleaned up. EPA and states are committed to cut this number in half by 2007 and continue to find faster, more innovative, and less costly ways to get the job done. Throughout the year, EPA will work with states, tribes, and others to better characterize the sites that still need to be cleaned up and look for fresh approaches, such as bundling sites into a multi-site cleanup approach; continue pay-for-performance contracting; and provide better training of EPA and state site cleanup managers. All of this should help to clean up sites more quickly and lower administrative burdens.

Check back to this web page throughout the year to obtain the latest information on OUST's efforts on these issues.

20th Anniversary Highlights:

• Tri-Fold Cleanup Brochure
• OUST's 20th anniversary report "Building on the Past to Protect the Future"
• LUSTLine 20th Anniversary issue (PDF) (About PDF)
• Multi-Site Memo to Regional Division Directors (PDF) (8 pp, 110K, About PDF)
• Updates to alternative cleanup technology manual

Basic Cleanup Information:

• Clean Up Underground Storage Tank System Releases
• Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Goals (PDF) (Memo from OUST Director Cliff Rothenstein to EPA UST/LUST Regional Division Directors, Regions 1-10, October 1, 2002.) (6 pp, 22K, About PDF)
• Corrective Action Measures Archive
• Updated LUST Performance Measures (PDF) (memo dated March 28, 2003.) (3 pp, 9K, About PDF)
• Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund
• Pay for Performance (PFP) Contracting
• Risk-Based Decision-Making
• MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether)
• Oxygenates other than MTBE
• Remediation Technologies

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