SIGMA Condemns EPA Lax Enforcement
16 December 1998
The Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America Condemns EPA Lax Enforcement
Reston, Va.--Dec. 15, 1998--In a rare twist, The Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America (SIGMA), an industry trade association, announced that it is outraged that EPA has decided to laxly enforce its own environmental protection regulations.SIGMA today condemned as "totally unacceptable" an action taken by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Wednesday that threatens the environment by weakening enforcement of the nation's underground pollution control laws. SIGMA is drafting a lawsuit to have this transgression of justice stayed or reversed.
At issue are regulations which have been in place since 1988, requiring owners of petroleum underground storage tanks (USTs) to take actions to prevent leaks into the soil and groundwater. Congress enacted legislation in 1984 to address the problem of domestic and municipal water systems being contaminated by motor fuel from leaking USTs. EPA exercised its authority under that law, and in 1988 adopted final regulations which gave tank owners 10 years to upgrade older tank systems to new standards. That ten-year phase-in expires next week, on December 22.
For years, SIGMA has been urging EPA to adopt a policy of strong and fair enforcement on the December 22 tank deadline. EPA has repeatedly promised that would be the case, and made unequivocal statements that there would be no extension of the deadline. In fact, as recently as this August, EPA issued an "enforcement strategy" which called for all noncomplying tanks to be at least temporarily closed on December 22 or face serious consequences.
"Unfortunately, it now appears that EPA lied through its teeth," noted SIGMA President, Robert D. Phillips, Jr., who is also President of Fuel Managers in Tulsa, Oklahoma. "Last Wednesday, 13 days before the deadline, EPA double-crossed every gas station operator who relied on those promises in making business decisions. In a supplemental revision to its enforcement strategy, EPA changed the rules and virtually invited some categories of tank owners to ignore the deadline for six months. SIGMA members are outraged."
SIGMA charges that the revised enforcement strategy is also bad for the environment, in direct contravention of what congress passed the law to accomplish and to EPA's overall mandate.
The key points of EPA's new non-enforcement strategy are that:
1) For the next six months, EPA will NOT target for enforcement gas
stations or other tank locations owned by anyone who has four or
fewer tanks, nor will they target state or local government
entities for enforcement. "Those are the groups with the
highest noncompliance rates," noted Phillips. "Studies
indicate that these are the main violators of the tanks rules at
the deadline, with lower compliance rates." Instead, EPA will
focus on owners of multiple sites, which studies show are the
most likely to have upgraded their tanks.
"Among SIGMA members, tank replacement, upgrade, or closure rates
for old tanks stood at more than 95% as of our last study earlier
this year," noted Tom Osborne, Director of Communications for
SIGMA. "EPA says they are putting their limited resources where
it will do the most good, but that's hard to see when they focus
their enforcement on those who have tried to obey the law and are
giving carte blanche to the scofflaws they know are in
violation."
2) Tank owners who use EPA's "disclosure and self-correction"
procedures can expect little or no penalties for upgrades not
done during ten years allotted by EPA but waited until the first
six months after the deadline. "EPA says that penalties will be
limited to the 'economic benefit' realized by the noncompliant
tank owner who turns himself in, and claims that any such
'economic benefit' would be quite small during the first six
months after the deadline," notes Phillips. "But that is
false. The economic benefit is 100% of the profit from the sale
of gasoline during that time period, since the law requires that
noncomplying tanks be shut down and you can't sell gasoline
without operating tanks."
SIGMA leaders noted a further irony about this revised enforcement strategy. "As it stands, the guy who ignored the rules, didn't do anything to upgrade his tanks, and now 'self-reports' his violation will have little or no penalty. But his competitor, who spent upwards of $175,000 per station to meet the new environmental rules, can be assessed heavy penalties if EPA auditors come in and find the tank contractors made some minor mistake during the installation process -- because the tank owner doesn't know about the violation in advance, he can't 'self-report' the mistake and be eligible for lenience. SIGMA generally supports the concept of lenience for self-reporting of violations found during an environmental self-audit, but the support is for legitimate errors discovered and promptly corrected. EPA's use of the procedure in this case is a gross injustice."
SIGMA informed its members last week that, "In sum, EPA has decided that where will not be strong enforcement of the deadline, and that what enforcement there is, will not be fair. It will go after nickel-and-dime paperwork violations while ignoring the scofflaws. SIGMA finds this totally unacceptable. We will do whatever it takes to get this inequitable policy reversed. We're reviewing each weapon at our disposal."
SIGMA is a national trade association of 256 petroleum re-sellers and retailers of motor fuel. Last year the members of the association sold 34.1 billion gallons of fuel, supplied 27,500 retail outlets and employed 220,000 people. A typical member of SIGMA sold 52 million gallons of fuel through 44 outlets and employed 200 people.