Tank removal fund runs dry leaving homeowners with unanticipated costs

A program set up to aid residents and business owners looking to excavate old underground heating oil and petroleum tanks from underneath their property has financially run dry, leaving some current applicants in the dark about how to recoup their expected rebates.

The program and fund to help those wishing to take out old oil tanks is called the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Remediation, Upgrade and Closure Fund, commonly known as the UST program. It's co-administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), which accepts a lengthy application first and when approved is sent to the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) for funding. The fund was established by an act in 1997 by then Governor Christine Todd Whitman to help applicants upgrade or remove their old tanks to prevent future leaks and spills while also providing a funding method to help offset costs of remediation to mitigate spills that have already occurred. The fund, according to Jeff Tittel, of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which lobbied for its establishment, has been funded by a 4-percent allocation of the state's collected corporate business taxes that funded not only the UST program but a myriad of other environmental funds...

Under the current funding formula, applicants are eligible for reimbursements on their underground tank removals of between $1,500 to $3,500 depending on the size, 550 gallons on the low side and 3,000 gallons on the high side. Applicants could also be eligible for between $1,700 to $2,600 in above ground tank installations. Following that, a cost guide for heavy equipment, permits, backfill, labor, material disposal and vapor intrusion is set by the state for costs above and beyond the basic removal; most times those costs being related to remediation efforts. The last NJEDA annual report in 2009 showed applicants were funded about 89.6 percent of their total project costs thorough the program. In Bergen County, 190 projects were funded that year with a total cost of $1,888,133. The state fund picked up $1,692,525 worth of the total costs...

If a property owner cannot pay for removal of a tank that is leaking and poses an immediate environmental concern, such as threatening a drinking water supply, the DEP may consider using its own funds to conduct a clean-up then attach a lien on the property," said Hajna "We are conducting a review, but we do not believe that any of the pending cases fall into the category of posing an immediate environmental concern..

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