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DEQ seeks higher fee cap for underground tank program; industry supports coordinated rulemaking
Summary
DEQ told the House Natural Resources Committee that underground storage tank program costs have outpaced current fee revenue and asked the legislature to raise statutory fee caps so agencies can pursue a rulemaking increase; the bill does not itself raise fees, DEQ said.
Senate Bill 46, carried by a senator representing Park and Gallatin counties, would lift statutory fee caps for the Underground Storage Tank program so DEQ can pursue a rulemaking to raise registration fees if needed.
Amy Steinmetz, Division Administrator for Waste Management and Remediation at DEQ, described the Underground Storage Tank program’s role in permitting, inspections, installer/remover certification and leak prevention. She told the committee the fee caps set in 2003 have not kept pace with inflation; "the small tank registration fee cap would increase from $36 to $100 and the large tank registration fee cap would increase from $108 to $300," she said as example caps in the bill. Steinmetz emphasized that the bill raises only the statutory caps; any actual fee increases would occur later through rulemaking and DEQ stakeholder engagement.
Steinmetz told members that the program ran a $233,000 operating loss in fiscal year 2024 and that the base federal funding for the brownfields program is about $700,000 per year; she said fee increases would be calibrated to avoid undue hardship on gas station owners.
Brad Longcake, representing the Montana Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said his members worked with DEQ during the interim and support the approach of raising caps and pursuing a predictable rulemaking. No opponents appeared for SB46 at this hearing, and committee questions focused on timing and billing/proration of fees.
No committee vote on SB46 was recorded at the hearing; the sponsor closed the hearing and the committee moved on to other bills.
