ABSTRACT
Before permanent closure or a change-in-service is completed, owners and operators must measure for the presence of a release where contamination is most likely to be present at the UST site.
40 CFR 280.72(a)
The federal requirement for site assessment at tank closure represents a formal acknowledgment of the high potential for some degree of soil contami nation around many, if not most, old underground storage tanks (USTs). While the amount of contamination is often small, usually the result of occasional overfills, a scientific assessment of the tank area or excavation is necessary to ensure that contaminated soil can be identified and remediated so that it does not remain a buried source of groundwater degradation long after the tank is gone.
