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Environmental Response director seeks $4 million transfer for petroleum cleanup fund, highlights voluntary cleanup successes
Summary
The division that oversees petroleum storage tanks and Superfund sites asked legislators to permit a $4 million transfer to the cleanup fund and reviewed several voluntary cleanups now enabling redevelopment.
Brent Everett, director of the Division of Environmental Response and Remediation, asked the subcommittee to support statutory authority allowing a $4,000,000 transfer from the petroleum storage tank (PST) enterprise fund into the PST cleanup fund to address orphan sites and other cleanup needs.
Everett said implementation of SB 40 (which added aboveground petroleum tanks into the PST program) is under way: of 237 registered aboveground tanks DEQ is tracking, 190 have reported and secured certificates of compliance so far. The director said the department will continue outreach and compliance work for the remainder.
The division described recent voluntary‑cleanup projects that cleared environmental impediments to redevelopment: removal of abandoned underground storage tanks and contaminated soils at an old gas/convenience site on North Temple, conversion of the former Redwood Road dump into a tiny‑home village, and long-term remediation completed at the Jacob smelter Superfund site. Everett said HB 18 includes statutory language allowing the requested $4,000,000 transfer and that the bill passed the House and was moving to the Senate.
Everett also noted emerging contaminant issues (PFAS/PFOS) and changing cleanup standards (for example, new proposed federal soil lead guidance), and he warned that evolving fuel blends and infrastructure compatibility issues can accelerate equipment failure in storage systems. He flagged staffing turnover at his division as a near-term management challenge.
The division said the proposed transfer would help pay for orphan-site cleanups and to keep voluntary cleanup and petroleum‑release response capacity in place while DEQ continues to collect program fees and federal dollars for site work.
